Changing How We Think About Fish

According to the World Resources Institute, Australia boasts 66,530 kilometres of coastline. We are indeed girt by a shit load of sea. It's for this reason, albeit not exclusively, that I'm gobsmacked by the dwindling nature of our seafood resources. 

A good haul of garfish

Is our potential seafood crisis a result of over fishing or is it the result of conservative thinking and tastes? I believe it's the result of over fishing to cater to conservative thinking and tastes! You can count the the fish species consumed by the average Australian on one hand. There's a huge variety out there in the sea by which we're girt, but we keep hoeing into the same old thing.

Flathead, snapper, Atlantic Salmon, barramundi and basa constitute the bulk of fish sales in Australia. Three of those are farmed, one in the effluent rich waters of the Mekong Delta. There's also a big market for a number of pelagics, but the modest list of what's most popular, is leading to those species being in very short supply.

Less than 15 years ago, flathead for instance, was not regarded as a particularly highly

Luderick, flathead, tailor, whiting - A good morning

prized catch.  It's a flavoursome, firm fleshed and versatile fish, but it's not going to knock anyone's gastronomic socks off, yet it's immensely popular. Along with Atlantic salmon, it's a standard on pub menus all over Australia, including regions vast distances away from the nearest flathead fishery. Not that long ago, $10 per kilo was the average price for skinned and pin boned flathead tails, yet in the past 10 years the price has risen dramatically to upwards of $40. These prices are driven by a huge demand and yet they're doing nothing to curtail it's popularity. The flathead's fate appears to be a self perpetuating prophecy. As long as it fetches high prices, the more it'll be fished. The way things are looking at the moment it'll be fished into endangerment within a decade.

Flathead of course, isn't isolated in its precariousness. Yellowfin Tuna, snapper, swordfish, school sharks, orange roughy, larger pelagic mackerals and a number of other species are also facing endangerment through over fishing. A number of smaller species such as sardienes and pilchards are in danger from another perspective. They're being harvested in mass proportions to produce feed for aquaculture, in particular the Atlantic Salmon industry in Tasmania. Up to 4 kilograms of smaller fish are required to produce just 1 kilogram of Atlantic Salmon. The humble sardine, one of the most delicious, nutritious and sustainable of all our wild caught species, is facing endangerment. Not because we're eating them, but because they are used to sustain an industry that produces fairly ordinary salmon that's artificially dyed and alleged to be dosed with significant quantities of antibiotics. 

Las Sardinas, straight from our grill

Not only is Atlantic salmon aquaculture not sustainable, neither is it good for the rivers that support it. Sadly it's a problem that's not going away. With a harvest of around 45,000 tonnes per annum, Australians have taken to this introduced species like gannets. We'd all be a lot better off, both nutritionally, financially and environmentally, if we'd been sold on wonderful fresh sardines rather than farmed salmon. Even with the sardine schools being heavily fished for aquaculture, they are still available for as low as $6 a kilo. They'd be even cheaper if they weren't being plundered for salmon feed. They wouldn't be as heavily fished, even if they completely replaced salmon in the market. Four kilograms of sardines could feed 2 people for a week and provide excellent nutrition. A kilo of whole salmon might provide a couple of meals, but it's nutritional value is questionable.

It's not that fish markets and fish mongers don't present us with options, it's just that our tastes are so limited that the standard species outsell the more sustainable less popular fish by many times. The real problem is convenient blast frozen products in terms of flathead and the wholesale market as far as salmon goes. There's barely a pub or mid market restaurant in Australia that doesn't serve flathead or Atlantic salmon. in many pubs Atlantic Salmon is often the only fish on offer. I live in Far North Queeensland where a huge variety of fish is available commercially, yet Atlantic salmon from nearly 5,000 kilometres away, has finned its way onto just about every menu. 

There's no reason for the less celebrated fish species being, well, less celebrated. There are many, many species of fish that are ridiculously affordable and absolutely delicious. The most overlooked fish in southern waters is the "blue" mackerel - scomber Australasicus. This magnificent table fish's small market share is testament to how incredibly conservative Australians are, even after being subjected to endless food media. If you take Britain for example, since the advent of the food mass media age, 20 odd years ago, there has been an unprecedented influx of previously unavailable fresh produce on their food retail market. It's fair to say that the Australian market was significantly more varied prior to that, but fish sales statistics have changed very little. We've gone paleo, gluten free, organic, avocado mad, quinoa crazy, Kale obsessed and food truck insane. Our pork is invariably pulled and nothing is served on a fucking plate any more, but we still can't seem to embrace an inexpensive abundant and sustainable species of fish.

Blue mackerel is supremely delicious and extremely high in both nutritional value and all the good shit that helps prevent diseases and stuff.

Oh No!!!! Here comes 60 Plus Bearded Akubra Bloke, but he's disguised by  a t shirt and cap promoting fishing tackle.
"You can't eat that. That's slimey mackerel, that's bait. You can't eat bait. I don't eat bait. It's un-Australian. I only eat Barra and flathead. That's what real Aussies do!"


Yet again 60 Plus Bearded Akubra Bloke is talking out of something that one most often

Blue mackerel fillets under the grill

finds in a sticky pudding. Scomber Australiascius has indeed been a popular bait for eons. Usually in pursuit of fish that "fight hard" and don't challenge the consumer with anything too out of the ordinary, such as flavour. I'ts virtually the same species that has been a prized delicacy in Europe since before history began. It's even imported to Australia as a smoked product and sold for a shit load of cash. 

It's interesting that in a country that boasts so little cultural disparity from state to state, the culture of the fish we prize, varies greatly. In South Australia, the utterly delicious garfish is highly prized by all. Fillets sell for up to a whopping $40 per kilo. In NSW it's prized by a number of ethnic groups, largely Greeks and Italians, but can be purchased whole for as little as $5 per kilo. Here in FNQ, "beakies" are highly abundant and easy to catch. In fact up here you can catch the very sweet, firm fleshed barred garfish, the best of them all. Despite their abundance, whenever I catch a bucket full, 60 Plus Bearded Akubra man walks along the jetty and says "garfish, good bate! You have to use those to catch Spanish mackerel. I only eat Spanish mackerel. Why would I eat bait when I can eat Spanish mackerel. Eating bait is un-Australian!" 

I can go to the jetty day after day and return with the evening's meal, whilst a bunch of my

Bait???

fellow fishermen spend day after day, using what I take home to eat, in an attempt to catch the odd elusive sport fish. I'm not going to be a hypocrite and deride sport fishing, but I do fish to eat and I'm quite willing to forgo the thrill in exchange for feeding my family. That's not to say I don't put out a bigger rig at the same time, in hope of hearing the reel spool and seeing it start to smoke!

I believe the risk of a seafood crisis in Australia is in part proliferated by our over zealous taste for meat. As odd as it might sound, there is method to my madness. With palates very much tuned into a diet of meat, the average Australian's taste for fish has been limited to either inoffensive and less flavoursome or something a little meaty that "tastes just like chicken." This has led to over fishing of a limited range of fish. 

The other BIG issue is bones. The average Australian fears a fish bone as much as a strike by brewery workers, so they stick with what they know. In reality, with a modicum of knowledge most fish species can easily be turned into boneless fillets or pieces. There are abundant, delicious, nutritious and sustainable fish species that can be purchased at extremely reasonable prices, right around this vast coastline that stands as a barrier between us and a damned good girting. 

So why eat more wild caught fish? It's quite simple. Low income earners can eat extremely well for not much money by selecting the right fish species. It's very good for you. There are also great benefits to reducing the amount of meat that we consume. By eating sustainable fish, we can help reduce the environmental costs of mass aquaculture, which are very high indeed. Armed with a little bit of knowledge about processing whole fish and cooking the results of one's knife work, a vast world of piscatorial epicurean delights will be revealed. Just don't be afraid and for fuck's sake, don't listen to 60 Plus Bearded Akubra Man!

So what are some good value, delicious, sustainable Australian fish species? The list is vast, so I'll provide but a selection. As this blogging thing progresses, I'll also post tutorials that demonstrate how to approach the anatomy of various species with a well sharpened filleting knife.

Garfish, blue mackerel, sand whiting, bonito, leather jacket, mullet, sardines, Australian Herring (Tommy ruff), flounder (not NZ), Red Mullet (goatfish), Hussar, whitebait, tailor, trevally. This list could go on and on. There are even a number of the more celebrated species that come onto the market as whole fish at surprisingly low prices, when there have been big catches. The trick is to shop as close as possible to where fish is landed. In the major cities and towns, there are major fish markets. In smaller coastal towns, co-ops are usually the best place to start. It's worth making that extra effort, because the benefits of expanding the variety of fish that you consume, are great and many.

Before we wrap up this cornucopia of piscatorial deliciouness: Basa! Just don't!
I'd even be so bold as to say that if a restaurant or takeaway can't guarantee that they're not serving basa, go eslwhere.

Basa is a fresh water catfish that's farmed in the Mekong Delta. Not only is it of very poor quality, there's no guarantee of it's freshness when it's processed, blast frozen and shipped to Australia from Vietnam. It's the product of mass aquaculture in a country that has nothing like the regulations that we have here in Australia. The rivers and oceans are stripped bare in order to produce feed for this destructive form of aquaculture. Waste from the basa operations, of course flows back into the Mekong.

Whilst environmental issue in Vietnam might not concern everyone here in Australia, concern over what we put in our bodies is fairly universal. In many instances, basa aquaculture takes place in filthy water that contains high concentrations of human effluent. There have been numerous reports based on basa tested here in Australia containing significant traces of antibiotics. Some reports have alleged that even traces of banned antibiotics have been found. Importers can quote the Vietnamese legislation as much as they like. In developing countries, legislation is often just a case of policy written on paper. What actually goes on in the world of basa aquaculture is more likely to be based on how generous the big players are to government officials. 

We have absolutely no need to eat imported seafood in this country. Whilst I certainly believe that a number of species, including flathead, need a break for a few years. There are plenty of other options.