Avoid Eating Endangered Fish
Avoid eating over-fished and threatened fish species.
By becoming aware of which wild fish are being harvested and threatened by extinction, we can start to alter our fish eating and buying habits and ensure we are doing what we can to protect threatened fish. Also becoming aware of threatened fish we also begin to develop an understanding of marine ecosystems, their significance to us, and the need to protect them.
How to do it now!
Contact & join the Australian Marine Conservation Society and get a copy of Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide (with a foreword by Tim Winton).
In the meanwhile if you are going to eat seafood.
Fish species least endangered and a better choice for eating include:
| Better choice for eating | Also marketed as: |
| Australian Salmon | |
| Blue Swimmer | Crab, Sand Crab, Bluey, Blue Manta Crab |
| Bream | |
| Calamari, Cuttlefish, Octopus, Squid | |
| Flathead | |
| King George Whiting | Black Whiting, South Australian Whiting, Spotted Whiting |
| Leatherjacket | Ocean Jacket, Seine Boat jacket, Silver flounder, Chinaman, Yellow Jacket, Triggerfish, Butterfish |
| Mullet | Blue-tail, Fan-tail, Flicker, Umping, Nano, Sand, Yellow-eye |
| Mulloway | Butterfish, King Jewfish, Kingfish, River Kingfish |
| Trevally | |
| Western Rock lobster | Western Australian Crayfish, Western Cray |
| Whiting | Sand, Eastern School, Western School, Stout (Winter), Trumpeter, Western Trumpeter, Yellowfin |
| Yellow-tail Kingfish | Kingfish, Tasmanian Yellowtail, Kingie, Yellowtail |
| Abalone | |
| Blue Mussel | Mussel |
| Crayfish | Marron, Redclaw, Yabby |
| Oysters |
Fish species that are overfished and endangered and to be avoided include:
| Overfished | Also marketed as |
| Blue Warehou | Trevally, Sea Bream, Snotty Trevalla |
| Commercial Scallop (Bas Strait) | Southern Scallop |
| Deepwater Shark | Flake, Boneless Fillet |
| Eastern Gemfish | Hake, King Couta, Silver Kingfish |
| Orange Roughy | Deep Sea Perch, Sea Perch |
| Oreos (black, smooth, spiky, warty) | Dory, Deep Sea Dory, Spotted Dory |
| Redfish | Nannygai, Rerd Snapper |
| School Shark | Flake, Tope, Boneless Fillet |
| Silver Travally | White Travally |
| Southern Bluefin Tuna | Tuna |
| Also avoid vulnerable and heavily fished species | |
| Bigeye Tuna | Tuna, Bigeye |
| Broadbill Swordfish | Swordfish |
| Sharks & Rays | Flake, Boneless Fillet, Stingray flaps |
| Yellowfin Tuna – Wider Pacific Ocean | Tuna |
OceanWatch Australia is a national environmental, not-for-profit company that works to achieve sustainability in the Australian seafood industry by protecting and enhancing fish habitats, improving water quality and advancing the sustainability of fisheries through action based partnerships with the Australian seafood industry, government, natural resource managers, business and the community. Visit their website to get involved and informed.
Save our Marine Life is a growing community of people and organisations working to protect our unique marine life. Visit their website and add your voice to protect Australia's unique South West marine life by establishing a network of large marine sanctuaries.
Why this action is important?
Establishing a sustainable balance in our harvesting of wild fisheries in the near future is essential to ensure fish stocks are sustained and species are protected from extinction. The extinction of an individual fish species, or any species in any ecosystem, can have significant impacts as it can alter food webs. Such impacts can be catastrophic. For example if the species is considered a keystone species. A keystone species is an organism that, if eliminated from an ecosystem, can cause a collapse of the food web and irreversible consequences on an ecosystem.