Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is set to return to TV screens later this year with a third instalment of his Fish Fight campaign.

The new Fish Fight programme will be the second follow-up to the original three-part Hugh’s Fish Fight series, which aired in January last year. Last August, Channel 4 screened Hugh’s Fish Fight: The Battle Continues, a one-off special that charted the progress made on tuna sourcing and EU fisheries reform.

Seafood industry sources claimed the 2012 show was likely to break new ground, focusing on illegal fishing and traceability in the seafood supply chain, as opposed to simply providing a further update.

A Channel 4 spokeswoman confirmed it was planning to run a third instalment of Fish Fight later this year, but said it was too early to comment on the content of the show. “We’re definitely planning to bring it back, as the campaign last year was such a massive success,” she said.

Industry body Seafish confirmed it had already held discussions with the production team behind Fish Fight but would not be drawn on content. “Seafish is giving the production team support and advice as it did on previous occasions,” said Seafish operations director Jon Harman.

Supermarkets that stocked so called ‘alternative’ fish species such as coley experienced sharp sales uplifts in the weeks following the first show, while Fearnley-Whittingstall’s focus on catching methods in the tuna industry sparked a string of sustainability commitments.