Seafood in Australia

Seafood in Australia comes from local and international commercial fisheries, aquaculture and recreational anglers.

[1] The sustainable seafood movement is growing in Australia as consumers become more aware of conservation issues and the importance of maintaining fish stocks.

Australia has special rights over the exploitation of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extending 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastline, exceeding that of its land mass.

The national product encompasses also the portion addressed to export, but it does not include the amount of fishery imported by Australia from abroad.

Despite the still-considerable share of the domestic product resulting from export, the purchases of Australian seafood from foreign countries has fallen by 10%, if compared to the rates of the previous year.

Like countries towards whom Australia aims its own exports, Australian imports derive mainly (approximately 80%) from edible fishery products; the remainder is due again to pearls and fishmeal, i.e. non-edible goods.

[4] In the Australian fishery market the rock lobster brought the largest revenue; exchanged for a value of $407 million.

[5] According to the Seafood Importer's Association of Australasia (SIAA), Hoki, Hake, Nile perch and Basa are the most relevant species of fish imported to Australia, in terms of volume[6] In the 1990s seafood consumption was 14.7 kg per capita in Perth and 15.1 kg in Sydney.

[8] People of Asian descent tend to have unique preferences for different fish varieties, with demand for imported species such as milkfish, tilapia, snakehead and pomfret.

Freshwater stocking has been carried out in some freshwater fisheries for many years Climate change is expected to have impacts on water temperatures, coral reefs and rainfall patterns which will in turn impact on local ecologies and habitat, breeding cycles and range of fish populations.