Whether it’s fish-and-chips by the seaside or prawns on the barbie at Christmas, Aussies love their seafood. For most of us it’s a part of our way of life. For a country that has such a love affair with the ocean and the food we harvest from it, I find it perplexing that we eat so much unsustainable seafood.
The bottom line is that the health of the world’s oceans and its fisheries are in decline (and this includes our own Great Barrier Reef, one of Australia’s most precious icons). A range of actions are required to reverse this situation, but one of the simplest things anyone can do is to stop eating unsustainable seafood.
Why isn’t this already happening? Basically there’s a lack of awareness and action in the general community. The good news, however, is that there are easy things we can do about it.
Sustainable seafood can be defined in various ways, but as Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide (www.sustainableseafood.org.au/) and its counterparts around the world make clear, sustainability is not only about the status of individual species stocks but the impact of fishing on our oceans, which includes the broader effects of fishing on habitats and ecosystems.
Two key steps are needed if we are to shift Australia’s love for seafood from unsustainable...
