Are there enough fish in the sea?

Are there enough fish in the sea?

Beaches, BBQs and seafood are all a part of Australia’s holiday pastime. Protecting it means learning to think sustainably about the seafood choices we make, writes Australian Marine Conservation Society’s Craig Bohm.

First published in Kindred magazine, issue 24, Dec 07. Taken from  Kindredcommunity.com

Australia’s wondrous and diverse marine environment is an important source of seafood, but it is also a source of beauty, wilderness and wildlife. In addition, it is a source of tremendous national pride.

In a world beneath the waves, seagrass beds, tropical reefs and sponge gardens bask in the sunlight.

Deeper down, seamount ranges, submerged mountains and deep sea canyons house a menagerie of ancient and long-lived fish.

Endearing marine mammals, such as dolphins, seals and whales move between these underwater worlds in search of food, love, and the good life.

And although we derive our seafood from these remarkable places, we must learn how to do so with care.

Australians eat over 206,000 tonnes of seafood each year and our appetite is growing. Today, an incredible 75 per cent of the world’s oceans are officially over fished or fished right up to their limit and Australia’s oceans are not faring much better.

Locally, the list of overfished species continues to grow and governments are srcambling madly to reduce fishing pressure on our small, local fish populations.

Today, more than 500 species of marine finfish and shellfish are caught or farmed in Australia and sold locally and overseas each year.

Yet on a global scale, although diverse and unique, Australia’s oceans are not particularly productive.

Australia ranks low on a global scale in terms of fisheries productivity, even though our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers an area greater than 16 million square kilometres!

For over a century we have allowed trawling, longlining, gillnetting, trapping, seine netting and numerous other methods of fishing to exploit our relatively small fisheries and supply us, and the world, with seafood.

The charge for accessing our marine commons has been small compared to the economic returns for industry.

The environmental costs, however, have been high and include a growing list of overfished species, habitat damage and loss of productive fisheries habitats, particularly inshore, plus impacts on non-target species and lost opportunities to other user groups in the community.

To date, the cost of fishing has been grossly under-estimated in our society. A legacy of fishing impacts is beginning to unfold in Australia and this and future generations must now bear the legacy.

Are things changing?

On a positive note, stewardship for our precious oceans is growing. Some restaurants and seafood retailers no longer sell overfished species and environmental accreditation for commercial fishing operations is inspiring some fisheries to improve their environmental performance.

Increasingly, society expects commercial fisheries to change their practices and conserve the ocean ecosystems that support them.

We expect the fishing industry to stop overfishing, eliminate bycatch and stop damaging our oceans’ habitats.

It is fair to say that the environmental ethic within Australia’s fishing industry is evolving. The catch-cry ‘Everyone’s a greenie these days’ is increasingly heard from fishers.

Although this personal ethical growth is welcome, the harsh economic drivers which dictate fishing behaviour at sea still conflict with the desire to adopt more sustainable fishing practices and so the overfishing continues.

It’s time to take control

Follow these main guidelines when making your next fish purchase:

• Avoid long-lived or slow growing species (eg orange roughy, commonly labelled as deep sea perch);
• Avoid deep sea species (caught below 500m)—they generally grow slowly and can take decades to reach breeding age (eg oreo, commonly labelled as dory and gemfish);
• Avoid sharks and rays, (commonly labelled as flake; and
• Avoid imported seafood as we have no control over their management.

What about imported seafood?

It is virtually impossible for Australians to make sustainable seafood choices from imports.

We are given very little information about where the imports come from and no information about how they were caught or farmed.

We know nothing about the sustainability of imported species and can do little or nothing to influence fisheries management in their countries of origin.

It is almost as if imported seafood arrives in Australia in disguise.

As informed seafood shoppers we Australians can direct what seafood is caught, how it is caught or farmed and determine where it comes from.

Through our purchasing power and questioning at the seafood counter and at the restaurants, we can contribute to building a more sustainable seafood future for Australia and ensure that our oceans remain resilient and healthy for future generations.

List of fish to avoid

Please say no to these overfished and vunerable species taken from the wild:

• Blue Warehou (also called snotty trevally)
• Broadbill Swordfish (also called swordfish)
• Commercial Scallop (also called southern scallop)
• Eastern Gemfish (also called hake)
• Orange Roughy (also called deep sea perch)
• Oreo (also called deep sea dory)
• Redfish (also called nannygai)
• Sharks and Rays (also called flake or white fillet)
• Silver Trevally (also called white trevally)
• Southern Blue-fin Tuna (also called tuna)