In late April, visitors to Harbour Lights in Falmouth, Cornwall, may have raised an eyebrow. The fish and chip shop was in the midst of a “cod-free week”, its owners having removed cod from its menu entirely.

It was the second time owner Pete Fraser had undertaken the experiment, 15 years after the first. He also removed cod from his shops in Penzance and Helston, replacing it with coley, pollack, hake and hoki. The result was very different. “Some of the feedback we had, which certainly wasn’t what we got when we ran it years ago, is ‘Can you repeat this?’ Before, it was like, ‘Have you guys lost your head’?”

Part of the motivation for chippies making moves like Fraser is down to price. The average cost of a fish supper has risen from £6.48 in 2019 to £11.17, according to the Office for National Statistics. A barrage of pressures, from Brexit to dwindling fish populations and fishing quotas, pandemic inflation to war in Ukraine and the Middle East, has sent prices, particularly of cod, soaring.

Owners report regulars visiting less and, that when they do, they are often now sharing meals. Hundreds of chippies are up for sale; almost half of owners are “extremely worried” about the future, according to the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF).