We last saw him in a dog collar. But now the actor who played Broadchurch's put upon vicar, Arthur Darvill (pictured), is wearing another piece of animal apparel.

He is among a host of big names who have posed in their birthday suits, their modesty covered only by a cold, slimy fish, hoping to put a stop to over-fishing in Europe.

Luminaries from the worlds of film, theatre, sport and business, including Eileen Atkins and Melanie Laurent, have stripped off and cosied up to fruits of the sea for the latest collection of Fish Love images.

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The photographs, taken by Italian fashion photographer Alan Gelati, join those of British fashion photographer Rankin which famously managed to do what previous campaigns could not: to put the issue of fish conservation on the covers of newspapers and magazines across the globe.

French actress Laurent, star of Inglorious Basterds, agreed to have her portrait taken with a large crab because: “The fishing crisis is quite complex and difficult for people to understand, but this was so simple: it said everything that anyone needed to know about the fishing crisis. If we don’t start protecting fish, they will die out.”

The campaign’s co-founder Nicholas Röhl, a restaurant owner from Brighton, said the reason the images were so striking were because “we’re not used to seeing fish as creatures that need our love, as creatures we need to protect: we’re more used to seeing fish as food”.

He anticipates the campaign acting as “as a wake-up call to the world” to end over-fishing, or risk losing stocks of fish within a generation.

Fishlove is now working to persuade European governments to support the reforms of the Common Fisheries Policy voted by the European Parliament in December, which seek to end overfishing by 2015, with a view to recovering and maintaining European fish stocks above levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) by 2020.

France is considered instrumental in the negotiations to secure a better future for fish. Thus the Fish Love images are going on display in Paris, at the Baudoin Lebon gallery, from 28 May to 1 June.

www.fishlove.co.uk; www.baudoin-lebon.com