Eating to extinction - should we call time on pie and mash?

Cod and chips, pie and mash, whitebait, tuna steak – is it time to take them off the menu, before these fish go extinct?

As the Thames flows from its source past Southbank Centre to the North Sea, it is teeming with wildlife, including eels and whitebait. Eels are indelibly associated with East London through pie and mash, a dish of eel and potato eaten since at least the 1800s. But they are now critically endangered (pandas are merely endangered) and face extinction. Is it time for them, and other endangered fish, to go off the menu? Or should we eat them up quick, while we still can?

To mark 2010 - International Year of Biodiversity, we’re putting our role in the biodiversity of our rivers and oceans on the menu for discussion, cogitation and digestion.

Speakers:

• Host: Duncan Dallas, founder of the Café Scientifique network
• Dr Stephen D. Simpson, a marine biologist and fish ecologist at University of Bristol.
• Dr Matthew Gollock, Assistant Manager - International Marine and Freshwater Programme, Zoological Society of London
• Geetie Singh MBE, manager and founder of The Duke of Cambridge pub, London

Free – no booking required.

This is one of a series of Cafe Scientifique events held as part of See Further: The Festival of Science + Arts. Cafe Scientifique is a place where, over cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore science and technology. To join in, just turn up, get a drink and a table, and get involved in the discussion.

Supported by the Kohn Foundation