{"id":148661,"date":"2025-11-22T21:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T21:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/148661\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T21:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T21:17:10","slug":"how-to-make-sustainable-seafood-choices-this-christmas-to-ease-the-pressure-on-australias-oceans-seafood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/148661\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make sustainable seafood choices this Christmas to ease the pressure on Australia\u2019s oceans | Seafood"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a challenging year for marine life heads into its final weeks, GoodFish has shared its list of sustainable choices for the festive season to help take the pressure off Australia\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a time to be more careful than ever,\u201d said Adrian Meder, sustainable seafood program manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, which produces the GoodFish<\/a> guide.<\/p>\n

The year has been marked by unprecedented high sea surface temperatures, mass fish kills and the persistent effects of South Australia\u2019s toxic algal bloom, along with pollution from Tasmanian salmon farms and a renewed rise in overfishing, he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe good news is, a whole lot of seafood producers are putting their best foot forward and showing the exact kind of leadership we need to address these challenges,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s who we\u2019re showcasing this Christmas time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prawns are a summer staple for many families, commonly served chilled or thrown on the barbie.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now there\u2019s a flood of imported prawns farmed with very questionable environmental practices pouring into Australia,\u201d Meder said.<\/p>\n

Instead of imported vannamei prawns, GoodFish recommended locally caught king prawns from SA\u2019s Spencer Gulf or Australian-farmed tiger or banana prawns as better options.<\/p>\n

The green-listed Spencer Gulf fishery was set for a bumper Christmas season, he said, while prawn farms along the Great Barrier Reef were required to meet stringent environmental requirements.<\/p>\n

The environmental practices of Tasmanian-farmed Atlantic salmon continue to be unacceptable, Meder said, with pollution, heavy antibiotic use and unacceptable treatment of wildlife such as seals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking to steer people towards sustainably farmed fish, like barramundi and Murray cod,\u201d he said. They are just as versatile in the kitchen, and uniquely Australian.<\/p>\n

Australian or New Zealand-farmed king salmon were also good alternatives to Atlantic salmon, according to the guide. For those wanting to try something different, New South Wales caught dusky flathead was a new addition to the guide\u2019s green list.<\/p>\n

Farmed Australian oysters and mussels remained a good choice, Meder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re absolutely delicious and they\u2019re farmed with remarkably low impact on the natural environment \u2013 an absolute Christmas classic from both a culinary and an environmental perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christmas was a good opportunity to support seafood producers in South Australia, an industry that had suffered<\/a> due to the algal bloom. Meder said the state had a strong track record of monitoring the health of its seafood and the conditions of its marine environment, with a number of SA fisheries green-listed in the guide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can find South Australian seafood on your shelves, you can have a really high confidence that it\u2019s safe to eat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sydney Fish Market\u2019s existing Pyrmont site will remain open for a final Christmas seafood marathon, before moving to a brand new building in January. Shoppers were expected to turn out in record numbers for one \u201clast hurrah\u201d as retailers opened their doors for 36-hours straight, chief executive, Daniel Jarosch, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will celebrate one final Christmas in our current home, before we open the doors to Sydney\u2019s newest waterfront icon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last year the market traded about 350 tonnes of seafood over the Christmas period, with 120t of prawns and 70,000 dozen oysters among the top sellers.<\/p>\n

Meder\u2019s advice for anyone planning their festive feast was to \u201cgo straight to our GoodFish guide\u201d. The guide rated the sustainability of 90% of seafood available in Australia, and suggested better alternatives when something came up as unsustainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter yet, we\u2019ll give you some advice on how to prepare it for friends and family as well to make sure Christmas is a special time and a sustainable time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a challenging year for marine life heads into its final weeks, GoodFish has shared its list of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-148661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}