A recent advertisement in The Sun seemed to say as much and provoked outrage from Alex Salmond, of the Scottish National Party, on behalf of Scottish fisher folk.

Timed to coincide with frantic talks between European fisheries ministers in Brussels, the full-page ad showed a rough seascape with a traffic sign emerging from the waves, signalling no entry to fishing trawlers. Wrapping itself in greenery, Birds Eye said it was no longer taking cod from the North Sea, in line with the policy of Unilever, owner of the Birds Eye brand, to source fish only from sustainable, well-managed fisheries.

For Scottish Nationalists, it was like a kick in the sporran. “This is a totally ill-informed and insensitive advert by Birds Eye,” railed Salmond. “They are clearly only interested in making a fast buck on the back of the fishing crisis.”

Many Scottish fishermen will be hanging up their nets for good. Last night, in a massive compromise, European Union ministers agreed to reduce the cod catch by 45 per cent. The cuts will shut down large sections of Britain’s fleet.

While Scottish politicians fought with their backs to the wall in Brussels, Birds Eye, purveyor of fish fingers to millions of British children, was running up the white flag. The whiskery old salt has sold his boat for scrap. The mate has gone south to work on building sites and the cabin boy is flipping burgers at McDonald’s.

That patriotic line does not wash at Unilever. Birds Eye fish buyers have not bought an ounce of cod from the North Sea for two years. The old skipper has been replaced by Russian and Norwegian fishermen, who trawl for Arctic Cod in the Barents Sea, and by his old enemies from Iceland. Secure in their exclusion zone Icelandic fishermen have managed their fish stocks properly, while Britain, France Spain and Portugal have been looting the North Sea like vandals, slaughtering anything that swims.

In October the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) issued a final warning. Its scientists deliver periodic doomwatch bulletins but the most recent announcement sent shockwaves across a barren North Sea bed — stocks of cod have fallen below safe biological limits in the North Sea, the Channel and the Skaggerak. ICES announced that nothing less than a complete shutdown would save the cod from local extinction.

Rudely awakened, Europe’s politicans rubbed their eyes, counted the votes in coastal communities and then rubbished the scientists. Franz Fischler, Agriculture and Fisheries Commissioner, took a deep breath and suggested a compromise that would cut the catch by 80 per cent, provide funds for retraining fishermen and, hopefully, leave a smaller but better regulated fishing fleet the chance to continue. A band of fishing nations — France, Spain, Portugal and the Irish Republic — are all saying “Non”.

Britain, too, has lost its bottle. The Prime Minister, so decisive and unyielding in his decision to ban the hunt of the cute and furry fox, is to sentence the scaly, unloveable cod to death. “An 80 per cent cut is entirely unacceptable,” Tony Blair told the House of Commons this week.

So what is Unilever doing, stepping into such a quagmire? “We are the largest supplier of fish into the UK market and we are happy to be part of the debate about sustainable fishing,” said David Lewis, head of corporate affairs at Birds Eye.

It is easy to see where Unilever is coming from. So much invested in fish and so much to lose if fish run out. Birds Eye has every interest in preserving a market cultivated assiduously over many years and Unilever has the clout to make a difference. With the help of WWF, the conservation body, it established the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which sets standards and procedures for running sustainable fisheries. The organisation, now independent, accredits certification agencies which in turn assess the management of a fishery, the operation of the fishing fleet and the inspection procedures. If it all passes muster, the fishery gets a certificate and the fish sold carries a nice blue logo that reassures the consumer — a bit like Dolphin-friendly tuna.

Unilever sources a third of its fish from MSC-certified fisheries including New Zealand hoki, a white fish sold under the Birds Eye brand which is being pushed as an alternative to cod. Wild salmon is sourced from an MSC-certified Alaskan fishery and the company aims to source all of its fish from MSC-certified fisheries by 2005. So sophisticated is the management system that hoki can be traced back to individual boats.

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