Fish Imports Australia
June 8th, 2008 by AndrewI happened upon a Radio National ‘Counterpoint’ program on Friday night that piqued my interest - and I was sure that members of the Finfish community would like to be aware of the programme too.
According to author and researcher Dr Walter Starck Australia has the second largest shelf area available for fishing in the world and yet we choose to import 75% of the fish we consume.
Is our coastline really that unpopular with fish? Why is our fishing productivity so low? Or is this an instance of too much regulation?
The discussion between Dr Starck and Dr Meryl Williams is a great debate and worth hearing for all concerned with fish production - whether by wild capture or aquaculture. The Counterpoint program audio can be accessed here. Drag the cursor to the 20 minute mark of the Counterpoint program and the fish related content will begin after a few seconds.
Tags: australia, radio interview, starck
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October 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
While we have one the larest fishing grounds in teh world, we are something like 51st biggest in terms of our catch size. Most of our fisheries are a maximum quota so there is little chance of extending (need to value add or embrace aquaculture).
I have been told that the reason we dont have so many fish in our waters is due to the water purity. The benefit (value wise)of our waters is also its downfall (volume wise).
We trade our fish for high prices abroad becuase people pay more for it. I think this mix will reduce over time as people catch less fish for private consumption and are more prepared to pay high prices to eat premium caught domestic fish.
We need to embrace imported fish. There is no way we can sustain the health recommendations of 2 serves of fish a week without imports. By growing the industry together (wild v aqua, imports v domestic) we can have far more success and ’share of voice’ than continually competing.