Sales at the United Kingdom's major retailers continued to slip from previous year's figures as consumers are asked to dig deeper into their pockets for ever less fish.

For the 12 months ending on April 26, the value of fish sales came to £3.17 billion (€3.9 billion/$5.3 billion), up 3.4 percent from the previous year's £3.06 billion (€3.8 billion/$5.1 billion), according to the latest statistics from market research company Nielsen.

Two years ago, the value of fish sales in the United Kingdom came to a total of £2.98