COD could soon be off the fish and chip shop menu.

Stocks of Britain's favourite fish are at their lowest ever level. So low that North West Euro MP Chris Davies is calling for a three year ban on cod fishing because otherwise he fears the fish will be wiped out.

With 8,500 dedicated fish and chip shops as well as thousands of other takeaways Britain is the prime market for cod in Europe.

With cod now more expensive than farmed salmon fish friers say prices have risen well above the rate of inflation even though they have had little difficulty securing stocks.

Leigh fish frier George Sharland, proprietor of The Happy Haddock on Railway Road said: "The price of cod has risen a lot but supplies have been available.

"If a fishing ban is necessary to preserve stocks then that must be the right move.

"We will continue to ensure our customers have the best fish possible whether it be cod, haddock or whiting."

Euro fisheries ministers will attend a pre-Christmas summit next week to agree reductions in quotas and net size restrictions to allow immature fish to escape.

But Mr Davies warns this may not be enough and fears a repeat of the complete destruction of cod stocks in 1992 on the Grand Banks which put 30,000 fishermen out of work in Newfoundland.

He said: "The fish haven't had a chance. Throughout the last century we built bigger and more efficient trawlers and equipped them with the latest technology.

"The poor cod simply haven't been able to breed fast enough to cope with the rate at which they have been caught."

Scientists say most of the fish now being caught are under-sized and too young to reproduce. They fear other types of fish may move in to the cod grounds preventing any recovery of stocks even if fishing is stopped altogether.

Last year parts of the Irish Sea were closed to all fishing during the cod breeding season from February to April. And Fleetwood fishermen are reported to be unable to find enough cod to even meet drastically reduced quotas now allowed.

Mr Davies said the European common fishing policy could not be blamed for the collapse in stocks because Britain's main rivals in the cod fisheries are Norway and Iceland, neither of which are EU members.

Worried fish friers are hopeful haddock stocks recover since preservative measures were taken and suggest other white fish such as saithe or pollock might be used to fill the gap if cod becomes a rarity.