Sustainably sourced fish will be top of the menu in some of Australia’s best restaurants after 40 well-known chefs signed up to the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish project.
The restaurants have all pledged not to source or serve seafood that is red-listed in the Sustainable Seafood Guide, published by the society.
Ben Shewry, the chef and owner of Melbourne’s Attica restaurant that is currently ranked at 20 among the world’s best restaurants, is the project ambassador.
In a statement, he said: “In my position as a chef, I have a big influence on what people eat and what other people cook because our restaurant is well known. If I don’t have what I would call a clean menu – if I don’t have best practice, the most sustainable menu I can have in terms of shellfish and seafood – then I am contributing to the problem.”
Other Australian chefs who have signed up for the project include Jacqui Challinor of Sydney’s Nomad, Alanna Sapwell of Brisbane’s Arc Dining, and the team behind the Three Blue Ducks restaurants in Byron Bay, Sydney and Brisbane.
A number of popular seafood staples are red-listed, including farmed Atlantic salmon, wild Balmain bugs, wild barramundi caught in Queensland and wild prawns caught on the east coast.
Overfishing, bycatch and the impact on the marine ecosystem are some of the concerns with the global fisheries industry.
The industry group Seafood Industry Australia released a statement saying it was “disappointed to see the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) touting their ‘seafood guide’ as fact once again.”
The group’s chief executive, Jan Lowell, said society was “unfairly targeting well-managed Australian fisheries, rather than celebrating their sustainability”.
Lowell suggested consumers should refer to the SIA’s own reports. The reports were developed by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, a co-funded partnership between the federal government and the fishing and aquaculture sectors.
Lowell’s statement said: “As fishers, our priority is the ocean. We advocate the health, sustainability and future of our sea. It’s our livelihood and the future livelihood of generations to come. We dismiss any comments otherwise.”