SQUID is highly unlikely to replace cod on fish and chip shop menus in Bradford, according to the city’s fish friers.

The thought of the traditional British fish supper being replaced by the likes of squid as the waters around the UK’s shores grow warmer, leaves a bad taste in award-winning chip shop manager Mark Lyness’s mouth.

Mr Lyness, from Towngate Fisheries in Idle, was reacting to news from Government scientists who say cod are heading north away from the British waters while more squid are thriving around the North Sea

“We don’t have squid on our menu and I don’t think we ever would. No way would it ever replace the likes of cod. It wouldn’t be a hit in Bradford and it wouldn’t go down as well with mushy peas or curry sauce. I’ve had squid before and think it’s quite rubbery.”

He said Towngate Fisheries, shortlisted in the Healthy Eating Fish and Chips Award category of the 2017 National Fish & Chip Awards, gets its fish from Icelandic waters where stock has been managed for decades unlike British waters. He said: “It’s the first I’ve heard of squid taking over from cod but it won’t take over in Bradford.”

Andy Wharton, from The In Plaice in Sunbridge Road, said: “I don’t mind squid but I don’t think it would catch on instead of cod. We only sell haddock here, not cod anyway!”

Government scientists from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), which has been monitoring North Sea fish populations for more than 100 years, say there are indications that seawater temperatures off the UK may continue to rise and that fishing boats are now catching species that have not been caught in the area before. According to the scientists, marine animals that would probably originally be thought of as being Mediterranean or characteristic of the Bay of Biscay, or around Portugal or Spain are increasing in UK waters. Cod numbers have also been slow to recover after overfishing, meaning much of the cod consumed in the UK is imported.

Delegates at the British Ecological Society’s annual meeting in Liverpool were told consumers might like to choose species that are distributed in their own waters rather than importing cod.

Red mullet, anchovies, sardines and John Dory, the kind of thing people would normally have eaten on holiday to Spain or Portugal, are other marine creatures who prefer warmer waters and are being found in British waters as they hot up.