A CSIRO scientist studying orange roughy to assess their sustainability. Photo: CSIRO.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society says Australians are being misled with the certification of the orange roughy as “sustainable” by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) because it should be classfied “endangered”.
Last week the conservation group lost an appeal against a decision to certify Australia’s orange roughy fishery with the MSC blue tick.
AMCS Sustainable Seafood Program Manager Adrian Meder called on Australian retailers and seafood suppliers to reject this “flawed certification” and support fisheries that were truly sustainable.
“Most Australians would be appalled at the idea of eating endangered species, yet this MSC certification is wrongly telling them it’s okay with its blue tick,” he said.
“There is no justification for certifying a fishery that targets an endangered species.”
Mr Meder said the orange roughy fishery failed in its first attempt to gain MSC certification in 2021 because it was classified as an endangered species in Australia.
“But then MSC weakened its standards – twice – so assessors could disregard governments’ endangered species declarations,” he said.
“Orange roughy populations remain highly vulnerable, with recovery still a long way off after catastrophic overfishing in the 1980s and ’90s.
“Orange roughy are a slow growing fish that can live to up to 250 years, but they also breed slowly, with recent studies suggesting they don’t reach their sexual prime until 70-80 years old.”
WA Fishing Industry Council spokesman Craig Sinclair said the conservation group had pursued “endangered” classification for the species for many years.
“They recently had a pitch to recognise it through conservation measures, which was quickly overturned in the courts,” he said.
“Orange roughy is a super-deep water species not commercially caught in WA, although we do get small amounts from time to time as by-catch.
“I think the commonsense approach is to understand that the fishery is MSC Certified, which is an onerous and time-consuming scientific process managed by independent marine scientists. They don’t just hand out certification at will.”
Mr Sinclair said the other consideration was that orange roughy was not listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature “Red List”.
“This is the number 1 list for endangered species,” he said.
“In a nutshell, there is ongoing monitoring from many sources to assess its sustainability status, however it is not on the risk list at this point in time.”
Mr Sinclair said AMCS was affiliated with Pew Charitable Trusts and renowned for pulling out “a targeted one per cent” from an issue and positioning it as a “universal truth”.
“They do this a lot with sharks,” he said.
“Put out a fearful message and then chase sponsors/donors to support their cause. It’s how they make money.”
RecFishWest has been contacted for comment.
