- New plans for imported seafood fail to deliver vital measures needed to detect seafood from illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fisheries
- Federal government's announcement ignores key expert recommendation for seafood traceability system
- Commitment to review seafood import data welcome
- Australia's seafood imports at risk of coming from IUU fishing overseas
The Australian Government's new plan digs further into our imported seafood supply but will not be able to keep illegal seafood off Aussie plates without critical improvements, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) warned today.
The government plan comprises a welcome review of seafood import data and a commitment to continue Australia's existing work supporting anti-IUU fishing measures. Yet despite years of consultation, international advice, and a detailed expert report, the plan omits a traceability scheme – a key measure needed to verify the provenance of our imported seafood.
The scheme would have mandated the collection of sourcing information from higher-risk items, such as squid and sharks, to verify that they were caught legally.
The changes fall significantly short of the best-practice traceability systems implemented in the EU in 2010 and Japan and Korea in 2020, leaving Australia at risk of becoming a dumping ground for dodgy seafood.
AMCS Fair Catch Program Manager Dr Kim Riskas said:
"The decision to look more closely at the data collected on our imported seafood is a good first step, but does not replace the need for robust traceability, especially for products the government acknowledges are at higher risk for IUU fishing, in particular squid, sharks, sardines and surimi – products being imported right now.
"The Australian Government must now deliver a best-practice seafood traceability system, in line with the conclusions of the government's own report and global best practice. Without this system, Australia is still at risk of importing from illegal fisheries.
"Australia imports nearly two-thirds of the seafood we eat. Without scrutiny at the border, this seafood is coming into the country and onto our plates without checking it was produced legally. In addition to fuelling unsustainable fishing and modern slavery overseas, this lack of scrutiny also undercuts Australian fisheries doing the right thing.
"IUU fishing undermines efforts to protect marine life and fisheries, fuels worker exploitation, and robs legitimate fishers of up to US $23 billion annually. By strengthening the rules for its imported seafood, Australia would be joining a global effort to make IUU fishing less profitable by reducing access to markets.
"Australia must implement a digital seafood traceability system for high-risk seafood products and create an expert stakeholder group to inform the plan's implementation.
"Seafood produced using IUU fishing, slave labour and environmentally destructive practices should never be on the menu in Australia."
Prof. Glenn Sant, Senior Advisor, Fisheries Trade at TRAFFIC said:
"For a long time, we've been concerned about the opacity of fisheries products coming into Australia and the risk they are not derived from legal and sustainable sources. Australia as a seafood market should be taking responsibility for its impacts, and requiring traceability, the backbone of sustainable and legal seafood trade. Unfortunately, the plan announced today does not address this risk. At a minimum, Australia must implement traceability for imported species at high risk of coming from IUU fisheries."
AMCS and TRAFFIC look forward to working with the Australian Government to deliver the crucial next steps and implementation of a seafood traceability system.
