This week Seafood in Focus ranges from international fisheries transparency and Australian marine parks to the humble can of tuna and the surprisingly complicated business of buying prawns.
Different subjects — but they have something important in common.
Consumers need reliable information if they are to make informed seafood choices.
FROM OCEAN TO PLATE — SCA JOINS GLOBAL TRANSPARENCY COALITION
The Seafood Consumers Association has been welcomed as an Affiliate of the Coalition for Fisheries Transparency (CFT), connecting the Australian seafood consumer voice with a growing international movement for greater transparency and accountability in fisheries.
The Coalition brings together more than 75 civil-society and non-profit organisations.
For SCA, there is an important additional message:
Transparency should not stop when the fish reaches the wharf.
Knowing who caught a fish, where it was caught and whether the vessel was operating legally is fundamental.
But consumers also need confidence that the seafood retains its identity as it moves through landing, processing, importing, wholesaling, retail and foodservice.
Vessel → Catch → Landing → Processing → Trade → Retail/Foodservice → Consumer
Break that chain and opportunities emerge for substitution, mislabelling, incorrect origin information, weight misrepresentation and other forms of deception.
The affiliation also creates a natural connection with SCA's developing I-CADMUS seafood integrity and education initiative.
Greater transparency protects consumers — but it also protects responsible seafood businesses from competitors gaining an advantage through illegal activity or deception.
Transparency builds trust — and it needs to travel with seafood all the way from ocean to plate.
Read the full SCA article: From Ocean to Plate: SCA Joins the Coalition for Fisheries Transparency as an Affiliate.
MARINE PARKS — CONSUMERS NEED A SEAT AT THE TABLE
SCA has made a submission concerning the future management of Australian Marine Parks.
Our position is straightforward:
Australia should not have to choose between marine conservation and sustainable seafood production. We should be capable of achieving both.
Marine parks can protect important ecological values, but decisions affecting fishing access can also influence domestic seafood production, regional employment, business viability, food security and ultimately consumers.
Fish move. Marine park boundaries do not.
Closing one area may displace fishing effort elsewhere, increase steaming distances and fuel use, concentrate fishing activity and reduce access to domestic seafood.
That does not mean marine protection is unnecessary.
It means decisions should clearly identify the conservation problem being addressed and consider the consequences of the proposed solution.
SCA believes some basic questions should be asked:
What are we protecting? What is threatening it? What measurable conservation benefit will the proposed restriction produce? Where will displaced fishing effort go? What happens to domestic seafood production and consumers? Could the same conservation outcome be achieved another way?
Marine conservation and sustainable seafood production should be partners, not opponents.
Seafood is food — and consumers deserve a voice when decisions affecting its future availability are made.
SCA has lodged its submission as part of the consultation process and will continue advocating for consumers to be recognised as legitimate stakeholders in marine-resource decisions.
Read our SCA article: Marine Parks, Seafood and Consumers.
WHAT DOES THE BLUE TICK REALLY TELL YOU ABOUT YOUR CAN OF TUNA?
Around 70 per cent of canned tuna sold in Australia is now reported to be sourced and labelled from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries.
That is significant.
But SCA decided to ask another question:
What does the blue MSC fish tick actually tell the consumer — and what doesn't it tell them?
MSC certification provides useful information about the environmental sustainability of a wild-capture fishery.
But it is not a comprehensive certification of everything consumers might want to know about the food inside the can.
What species are you eating?
Where was it caught?
Where was it processed and canned?
How much of the contents is actually tuna?
What else has been added?
What food-safety systems apply?
What about labour conditions?
And something remarkably basic that can get lost in discussions about certification:
Does it taste good?
Sustainability, safety, authenticity, quality and eating satisfaction are different dimensions of consumer trust.
Our article also looks at France's government-controlled Label Rouge system, which provides an interesting contrast because superior quality — including sensory assessment — is central to the certification concept.
We also question the media coverage behind the recent “70 per cent” announcement and ask why promotional material supplied by certification bodies is not always subjected to greater independent journalistic scrutiny.
Our message is not anti-certification.
It is pro-transparency.
A sustainability label can answer an important question. It cannot necessarily answer every question a consumer has about their food.
Turn the can around.
Read the ingredients. Look at the percentage of fish. Check the origin. Understand the sustainability claims. And don't forget the simplest test of all — did you enjoy eating it and was the quality what you expected for the price you paid?
Read the full SCA article: What Does the Blue Tick Really Tell You About Your Can of Tuna?
UNDERSTANDING PRAWNS — WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY BUYING?
Australians love prawns.
But buying them can involve a surprisingly complicated language.
Whole or headless? Green or cooked? Cutlet or peeled? U/10, 16/20 or 31/40? Wild or farmed? Australian or imported? Prawn or shrimp?
SCA's new consumer guide cuts through the terminology.
One of the simplest lessons concerns size.
Prawns are still commonly graded internationally by the number contained in a pound, even though Australians buy them by the kilogram.
The rule is easy:
The smaller the number, the bigger the prawn.
A 16/20 prawn grade means approximately 16–20 prawns per pound — roughly 35–44 per kilogram.
But size isn't necessarily quality.
And price per kilogram doesn't necessarily tell you which prawns offer the best value either.
A kilogram of whole prawns contains head and shell. A kilogram of peeled prawns is predominantly edible seafood.
Compare what ends up on your plate — not simply the number on the price ticket.
The article also looks at wild versus farmed prawns, Australian versus imported products, frozen and thawed seafood, glazing and net weight, added ingredients and the difference between prawns and shrimp.
We give a special mention to delicious Cold Water Shrimp, which demonstrate perfectly why small does not mean inferior, and we also introduce freshwater prawns and shrimp.
And once again we come back to something seafood discussions too often overlook:
Taste matters.
The biggest, most expensive, wildest or most heavily certified prawn isn't automatically the best prawn.
The right product is one that is honestly described, safely handled, represents good value, suits what you intend to cook — and tastes good.
Read the full SCA article: Understanding Prawns: What Are You Actually Buying?
SMARTER THAN YOU THINK — RETHINKING FISH INTELLIGENCE
Are fish really the simple, forgetful creatures popular culture has often portrayed?
Increasingly, science suggests otherwise.
Inspired by observations from SCA Advisory Council member Lene Northwood, our latest article takes a lighter look at some remarkable abilities found in aquatic animals.
Reef fish navigate complicated three-dimensional environments. Cleaner wrasse maintain sophisticated relationships with their “clients”. Migratory species travel enormous distances using environmental cues, while schooling fish coordinate thousands of individuals at extraordinary speed.
It is fascinating — but there is a serious consumer dimension.
Growing understanding of fish cognition and sentience raises questions about humane handling and harvesting, habitat protection and responsible stewardship.
Perhaps fish really are smarter than we have traditionally given them credit for.
Read: Smarter Than You Think — What Ancient Myths and Marine Biology Tell Us About Fish Intelligence.
NEW BOOK — PACIFIC SKIPJACK
A new book by distinguished Australian fisheries scientist Emeritus Professor Bob Kearney OAM will be published by ANU Press on 8 October.
Pacific Skipjack: The Remarkable Story Behind the World's Biggest Tuna Fishery tells the story behind the development of the south-western Pacific skipjack tuna fishery — one of the world's most important fisheries and a major economic and food resource for Pacific Island nations.
Drawing on more than 50 years at the highest levels of fisheries and environmental research and management, Kearney examines the science, personalities, politics and persistence behind the development of this extraordinary fishery.
Its timing is particularly relevant as Australia debates the future management of its own marine resources.
Kearney's work is a reminder that healthy marine ecosystems, sound science, effective fisheries management and sustainable seafood production need not be competing objectives.
The 244-page paperback is published by ANU Press with an Australian RRP of $39.95 and publication date of 8 October 2026.
Seafood in Focus looks forward to reading it.
SEAFOOD HEADS TO PRIME-TIME TELEVISION
The people, pressures and daily hustle behind Australia's seafood industry are heading to prime-time television.
The new six-part documentary Inside Sydney Fish Market premieres on SBS and SBS On Demand at 8.25pm on Thursday 8 October.
Narrated by celebrated chef Rick Stein, the series goes behind the scenes with fishers, buyers, retailers, traders and generational seafood families.
And the cameras travel well beyond Sydney Fish Market — from Rock Lobster fishing in Far North Queensland and Urchin diving off the NSW South Coast to the remote Chatham Islands, before returning to Sydney's pre-dawn seafood auction and retail floors.
The series also captures a historic period as Sydney Fish Market prepares for the move to its new waterfront home.
For consumers, programs like this can reveal something often invisible once seafood reaches a shop, restaurant or supermarket:
the extraordinary amount of knowledge, skill, risk, logistics and human effort involved in getting seafood from the water to our plates.
SCA welcomes opportunities that reconnect consumers with the people behind their seafood.
Worth watching: Inside Sydney Fish Market, Thursday 8 October, 8.25pm, SBS and SBS On Demand.
AROUND THE TRAPS
A few other things caught our attention around Australia's seafood and marine world.
PESTICIDES, OYSTERS — AND WHAT RUNS DOWNSTREAM
Some fascinating — and concerning — research discussed recently on 3RRR's Radio Marinara deserves wider attention.
Deakin University's Pesticide Watch project has been working with community groups to monitor around 135 sites across Australia, testing for hundreds of different pesticides.
But particularly relevant to seafood consumers was research discussed by Professor Kirsten Benkendorf of Southern Cross University concerning pesticides entering estuarine environments in northern NSW.
Researchers found oysters accumulating multiple pesticides — in some cases 10 or 11 different pesticides in a single batch — and reported associations between higher pesticide loads, greater oyster mortality and poorer oyster condition.
Professor Benkendorf also explained an important issue for seafood production: agricultural chemicals used upstream can travel into estuaries and potentially affect aquaculture and fisheries businesses downstream that have little control over what enters their growing waters.
It is another reminder that seafood does not exist separately from what happens on land.
What goes into our catchments can eventually reach our estuaries — and the seafood produced there.
This is an issue SCA believes deserves watching.
FISH NAMES — SOUTH AMERICAN FLATHEAD BACK ON THE AGENDA
There has been movement at the Australian Fish Names Committee.
FRDC has appointed David Hall as interim Independent Chair, while new Seafood Industry Australia CEO John Ackerman has joined the Committee representing SIA.
Of particular interest to SCA is South American Flathead (Percophis brasiliensis).
The Fish Names Committee reports that appeals concerning the proposed change from South American Flathead to South American Duckbill were upheld by the Tribunal, which cited deficiencies relating to procedural fairness, independence and consensus requirements.
The Committee is expected to reconsider the original application at a further meeting in November.
Meanwhile, the Fish Names Committee approved 121 new Standard Names at its July meeting, and another 96 proposed additions are heading for public consultation.
Among the prospective additions are some wonderful reminders of the extraordinary diversity of fish names: Monotonous Bigscale, Stiltwalker Sculpin, Flathead Blobfish, Cryptic Sole and Hoodwinker Sunfish.
A new edition of the Australian Fish Names Standard — AS 5300:2026 has also now been published.
For SCA, however, the fundamental question remains unchanged:
A naming standard is most valuable to consumers when the names they encounter in the marketplace actually follow it.
LISTENING TO PORT PHILLIP BAY
What does Port Phillip Bay sound like beneath the surface?
Researchers from Curtin University and the Marine Mammal Foundation have been using underwater microphones — hydrophones — to begin answering that question.
PhD researcher Amber Crittenden discussed the work on Radio Marinara, describing what is believed to be the first study to characterise the Bay's marine soundscape.
The recordings capture a surprisingly busy underwater world — dolphins, fish and other marine animals alongside the noise generated by boats and shipping.
Sound is particularly important underwater because many marine animals rely upon it to communicate, navigate and find food.
We spend plenty of time looking at the sea.
Science is increasingly helping us listen to what is happening underneath it.
A 13-YEAR-OLD TAKES ON SHARK NETS
And finally, something encouraging from the next generation.
NSW school student Zoe Coventry, aged just 13, appeared on Radio Marinara to discuss a petition she started calling for Australia to move away from shark nets.
Zoe became interested in the issue after seeing shark-net buoys during a family trip and began investigating their effectiveness and impacts on non-target marine animals.
Rather than simply opposing the nets, she has also been researching alternatives including drones, SMART drumlines and other emerging technologies.
Whatever one's position on shark-control policy, there is something rather encouraging about a young Australian seeing a marine issue, asking questions, doing the research and deciding that her voice matters.
Today's seafood consumers and ocean custodians include tomorrow's decision-makers.
A COMMON THREAD — CONSUMER TRUST
At first glance, this week's stories cover very different territory.
International fisheries transparency.
Marine parks.
A can of tuna.
Buying prawns.
Fish intelligence.
The world's largest tuna fishery.
And a television documentary about Sydney Fish Market.
But there is a common thread:
Understanding builds trust.
Consumers increasingly want to understand what their seafood is, where it came from, how it was produced, what they are actually paying for, whether the information accompanying it can be trusted — and whether it is good to eat.
That is why SCA continues to argue that the consumer needs to be placed at the centre of seafood policy and communication.
Healthy oceans matter.
Sustainable seafood production matters.
Truthful information matters.
Quality, affordability and taste matter.
And the people buying and eating seafood matter too.
Seafood Consumers Association Ltd
An independent voice for seafood consumers
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