INFORMATION about Sustainable Fish in Australia and links to many web sites can be found at this link.
Hilary McNevin journalist and author of a “Guide to Fish” book helps the consumer make an informed choice of the sustainable fish available in Australian Waters, its seasonality and recipes.
NICK Ruello talks to ABC’s Bush Telegraph program presenter Cameron Mitchell about the looming crisis in our Australian seafood supply. Seventy two percent of seafood eaten in Australia is imported says Ruello who is an independent seafood consultant, listen further to the discussion.
Noted also by the Australian Marine Conservation’s recent posting on their web site, “World Heritage Shark and Chips” that Sharks are leaving the Great Barrier Reef in vast numbers. But they are not leaving to find food or a place to breed. They are leaving in boats with their fins hacked off and their flesh packaged up as frozen meat, and often their flesh ends up as ‘flake in Australian fish and chips shops.
THE documentary film “Farmed Salmon Exposed” produced by Canadian film maker Damien Gilles has been seen worldwide. It is an in depth broadside blaming the industry for wrecking the environments and destroying livelihoods in Scotland, Canada and Chile. The film was made for the Pure Salmon Campaign which was a global project with allies in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Chile, all working to improve the way salmon is produced.
Read review of the issues in the film. See full length film here
IN the recent edition of the Green Living Magazine March/April 2011 there is a four page article written by Sue Peacock about sustainable fishing in Australia. The first five products assessed as sustainable under the Australian Conservation Foundation Sustainable Australian Seafood Assessment Programme are:
Red Emperor from the Pilbara, Western Australia.
Farmed barramundi from Marine Produce Australia, Cone Bay, Western Australia.
Yellow eyed mullet from the Coorong, South Australia.
Western king prawns from Spencer Gulf, South Australia.
Squid from the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales.
For the complete picture see the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s Sustainable Seafood Guide at www.sustainableseafood.org.au/Sustainable-Seafood-Guide-Australia.asp/active_page_id=698
JEREMY Prince, scientist at the Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research at Murdoch University, points out in his informative introduction to Eating Sustainable Healthy Wild Caught Fish In WA that virtually any fish can be sustainable if fishing communities work together with government scientists and regulators to manage their impact. Jeremy Prince wrote this article at the request of Jude Blereau of Wholefoods to highlight the story behind several WA fisheries that should be rewarded for the part they play in our society and marine environment. Read full article
THE Spencer Gulf prawn fishery in South Australia was recognised in 2010 as being one of the best-managed fisheries in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. In a recent comment by the South Australian Minister for Fisheries Michael O’Brien on the new sustainable seafood policies of Coles and Woolworths, he suggested that,
“While this approach should be commended, both supermarket chains should look beyond seafood certified by environmental groups to also look to South Australia as a world leader in sustainable fisheries and aquaculture management,” Minister O’Brien says. “Just because a fishery does not have an independent certification such as those offered by the Marine Stewardship Council or WWF, that does not mean it is not sustainable. Read further
MARCH 18th will be the fifth Australian Sustainable Seafood Day and support for sustainable fishing can be shown by everyone from consumers to retailers, from restaurants to food service companies by buying and serving seafood bearing the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC’s) blue ecolabel.
Read more about this initiative.
Further information about the Marine Stewardship Council is available here.
REPORTED in the ABC news this morning, alarm bells about Australia being a net importer of food. In five years, according the Grocery Council we have gone from a net exporter to a net importer. A similar story is reported in the Courier Mail by Dr James Findlay from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority. Findlay confirmed in Senate Estimates hearings Australia had become a net importer of sea food. The Sydney Morning Herald today discusses some of the related issues.
HAGEN Stehr, a tuna industry pioneer from Port Lincoln in South Australia, has achieved the holy grail of fish farming by breeding in captivity the highly prized southern blue fin tuna. Recently on ABC “Bush Telegraph” Hagen was interviewed about how this enterprise came to fruition.
GEORGE Monbiot of The Guardian highlights an encounter with a Cardigan Bay dolphin and the disastrous consequences of over-fishing. ‘The European Union now recognises that its fisheries management has been a disaster,’ Monbiot writes. ‘Its green paper admits that 88% of European fish stocks are over-exploited and 30% have collapsed. Its quota system encourages the dumping of millions of tonnes of dead fish at sea, while its efforts to reduce the fishing fleet’s capacity haven’t kept pace with technology.’
