- Our GoodFish seafood guide shows you which seafood to eat to ensure our seas will be plentiful for future generations
- “Give Flake a Break” – flake could be endangered shark in your fish & chips
The Australian Marine Conservation Society’s GoodFish seafood guide shows you how to celebrate Christmas and summer with delicious sustainable seafood.
In choosing the green-listed options, you will also be supporting Australian fishing and farming communities who are actively working to ensure that our seas will be plentiful for future generations.
Mussel and oyster farmers have done it tough with persistent flooding throughout farming areas in south eastern Australia. A plate of shellfish is a highly sustainable choice and will help these communities get through this latest climate-driven crisis.
Farmed down on WA’s south coast, Leeuwin Coast Akoya oysters have hit the market for the first time this year. It’s not every day an entirely new and highly sustainable Australian-produced seafood option comes along so we think that’s worth celebrating.
South Australia’s Spencer Gulf prawn fishery is Australia’s only green-listed wild prawn fishery and they’re catching western king prawns in time for Christmas.
The humble but wonderful Australian herring (you might know them as Tommy Ruff) has recovered from overfishing as a result of sound management, hard work and sacrifice from West Australian fishers. Sustainable, affordable and delicious, it’s a family favourite of ours here at GoodFish.
If you’re looking to splash out on a crayfish this summer, choose an eastern rock lobster from NSW or a western rock lobster from WA. These fisheries are looking to refocus on their domestic seafood markets and prices are lower than you might expect as a result.
And finally try to “Give Flake a Break”. Flake is a popular choice but only one in three Australians know that flake is shark meat.
Flake is supposed to be gummy shark but it could be any shark – even endangered shark – because fisheries are allowed to take several endangered species and there are no requirements to identify the species of shark being sold.1
Sharks get a bad rap, but they’re critical to the health of the oceans. The world has lost 70% of its oceanic sharks and rays in just 50 years, and 37% of shark species are threatened with extinction. At least 65 million sharks are killed by fisheries annually for their meat and the global shark fin trade. Australia’s waters are home to 328 shark species, and nearly half of them are found nowhere else in the world.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society operated a GoodFish & Chip truck at Bondi Beach in December to gauge the public’s reaction when they find out they could be ordering endangered shark. Check out their reactions in the video here.
Better alternatives to flake include:
- Rock Flathead caught in VIC
- Sand Whiting (yellowfin whiting) caught in NSW
- King George Whiting wild caught in VIC, SA and WA
- Silver Perch farmed from NSW, QLD or WA
- Barramundi farmed from QLD, NSW, VIC, SA, NT, WA
The GoodFish Guide www.GoodFish.org.au