Rock lobster in deckie's hand. Image: Grant Hobson
Why we need sustainable seafood
When the cod fishery collapsed around Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in 1992, more than 40,000 people lost their jobs and the Canadian government had to provide close to two billion dollars in community support to hundreds of devastated coastal communities.
With 28 per cent of the world’s fisheries overfished, the story of the disappearing cod is just one of many disturbing stories of fisheries, communities and marine life in trouble. They each show that ocean health is critical to human health and wellbeing.
Some of these stories can be told of Australian fisheries.
At last count there were 18 fish species in Commonwealth waters that are overfished. In South Australia there are four overfished species but this may increase with the next status report. There are also around 20 species under serious pressure in Western Australia and New South Wales.
Across Australia’s oceans there are many fish species being caught for which fisheries managers cannot say whether they are overfished or not.
Add this overfishing to the impacts from fisheries bycatch, land-based sources of water pollution, marine pests, habitat damage and climate change, and Australia’s ocean life is under threat.
And all the while the demand for seafood is growing.
To deal with these issues we need to protect our oceans and take from them sustainably.
To protect our oceans ACF is working with a number of environment groups to urge Australia’s governments to create a network of marine sanctuaries. You can find out more about these campaigns at Southwest Marine Sanctuaries, Coral Sea Heritage Park and East Coast Marine Sanctuaries.
To ensure that our take seafood from the oceans is sustainable, ACF has initiated a new and exciting sustainable seafood program.
The core of the program is a ground-breaking sustainable seafood assessment process that ACF has developed with a team of leading marine scientists and the University of Technology, Sydney. This is a first for Australia.
At the end of the assessment process, seafood products are given a colour grading: Green, Yellow or Red. This traffic-light system indicates how close the product is to sustainability, with Green the closest and Red the farthest.
A fourth grading, ‘Critical Conservation Concern’, is given to those seafood products which use or impact on threatened species. This would be identified at the time of the Panel’s preliminary investigation of the product and it would not proceed any further in the assessment process.
ACF is developing its program at a time when there are increasing calls from restaurants and consumers for information that will help them make sustainable seafood choices.
The seafood industry is also looking for ways to enhance the sustainability of its operations and assist the marketing of seafood products.
This sustainable seafood assessment process will reward, encourage, promote and guide the efforts of the seafood industry to enhance the sustainability of seafood products and improve sustainable seafood consumer choices.
Logo by Tom Fethers, Student of Design, University of Technology, Sydney