Growers and Grocers

Australia has 16,000 miles of coastline. When I moved here from New York last year, one thing I thought I could count on was abundant, affordable seafood. I imagined bling-bling three-tiered platters of chilled shellfish. I pictured every port city like Maine during lobster season, swimming in crustaceans. In reality, many of Australia’s marine species are overfished. Australian lobsters and king prawns, like all limited commodities, fetch a high price. But most of the cost of fishing is covered by the country’s fragile ecosystem, as nutrients dwindle and toxins increase in the oceans.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society now offers a revised edition of the pocket-sized resource, Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide. In his foreword, AMCS patron and Miles Franklin Award-winning Australian author Tim Winton asks,

So how do we reconcile this grim news with our appetite for fresh, healthy seafood? Well, first by accepting responsibility for our part in this web of connections. This relates to us and our habits and tastes. But mostly to our expectations. Nothing can alter our expectations the way knowledge can. We need plain, well-researched and independent information upon which to make judgments as consumers. And that’s where guides like this comes in.”

Indeed, the Australian Marine Conservation Society, a 40-year-old non-profit organization, does the job of educating the public very well. Its little book costs ten Aussie dollars (more or less US $7.50), and covers the environmental and health risks associated with over sixty seafood species. Those domestic fish and shellfish are divided into three categories: “Say no” (orange roughy, broadbill swordfish, and all varieties of sea-cage aquaculture), “Think twice” (Moreton Bay bugs, which populate their namesake body of water so sparsely that they’re rarely caught there anymore), and “Better choice” (Australian native salmon as opposed to introduced Atlantic salmon, and hearty blue swimmer crab as opposed to slow-growing king crab). The guide does take a bit of a doomsday approach, providing a disheartening list of conservation problems even for greenlighted species. But both concerned locals and conscientious travelers will be relieved to find that fish & chips standards like whiting and flathead are safe to eat.