CAN the humble dab save the fish world from extinction?

Probably not, but a popular Birmingham restaurant hopes increased consumption of this abundant North Sea dweller will help stem the decline of our endangered fish stocks.

Selfridges Gallery Moet Bar & Restaurant is one of the latest places to embrace the trend for promoting previously unfashionable fish. Everyone loves sea bass and turbot but these are premium fish, with price tags to match. And their numbers are under threat.

Selfridges has launched Project Ocean to challenge shoppers to imagine a world with “no more fish in the sea.” The project, run in partnership with the Zoological Society of London, paints an apocalyptic vision of the world’s fisheries collapsing by 2050. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Far from it. Selfridges is encouraging customers to try out sustainable fish varieties on its new-look fish menu and has pledged to commit to a responsible sourcing policy. The project may be running until June 12 but bosses say the campaign to champion stock preservation and marine protection is for the long term.

The Birmingham store’s new menu features specials such as pan-fried rainbow trout with Waldorf salad, grilled fillet of dab with crushed potatoes, smoked fish pie and Cajun spiced red mullet with sauté potatoes. All the dishes are less than a tenner. Over lunch at the restaurant – a fish lunch, of course – Selfridges’s group executive chef James Newton Brown explains that the new menu has been the most successful ever at the Birmingham store. Brummies, it seems, love their fish.

Until now, Selfridges’s restaurants have concentrated on cod, tuna and salmon, but times have changed. The varieties are still sold, although cod rarely features, but the emphasis now is on seafood like pollock, , mackerel, dab and mullet.

James, who has worked at Claridges, The Ritz and Mosimann’s, says it’s been an “invigorating challenge” to find new fish and new recipes. “I have been a big fan of these fish for some time,” says James.