The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has recently announced the assessment of 6 new Victorian seafood products as sustainable. These complement the existing 5 products identified by their pilot of the Sustainable Australian Seafood Assessment Program (SASAP).
This is great news for the conscientious seafood consumer, as it is now even easier to identify sustainable seafood products at market or in restaurants. The strength of the ACF’s program is that it uses independent scientific assessment by a Science Reference Panel and the University of Technology, Sydney. The ACF focusses only on individual seafood ‘products’, rather then a broader species based assessment. That is, they assess specific species that have been farmed or fished using specific techniques in an identified area. This is no-doubt a more time-consuming and expensive way of identifying sustainable seafoods, but it is also more thorough.
As explained on their website, this focus on seafood products, rather then species is what makes this program unique, and is important because:
“This recognises that there are regional and national differences in the way wild-catch fisheries and farming operations are conducted. It is likely that a species caught (or farmed) in one place may be produced in a sustainable manner, while the same species caught or farmed in another place may be produced in a much less acceptable way.”
The result for consumers? You can take this knowledge to your fishmonger or restaurant. If you can identify the species on sale and its origin, you can apply the findings of the ACF and accurately identify sustainable seafood.
So, finally, here are the newly assessed Victorian Seafood Products:
- Southern calamari from Corner Inlet
- Southern calamari from Port Phillip Bay
- King george whiting from Port Phillip Bay
- King george whiting from Corner Inlet
- Blue mussel from Sea Bounty Pty Ltd, Corio Bay
- Rainbow trout from Goulburn River Trout Pty Ltd, Alexandra
Find out more here and check out the Interactive map of Australian Sustainable Seafood Products too.
And, of course, for more information on individual species, their sustainability, and cooking tips, check out species profiles in the GoodFishBadFish Seafood Converter:
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Squid, Calamari and Cuttlefish – King George Whiting – Mussels – Trout