Aquaculture stocks, page-14

The first episode of 'What's the Catch'- was on tonight on SBS. The documentary looks at the origin and sustainability of Australian seafood.

What Species?

• Over 70% of all seafood we eat comes from overseas – much of it from South East Asia.
• Thailand has a multi-billion dollar prawn farm industry, exporting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of prawns per year, more than any other country in the world.
• Prawns are the second most popular seafood in Australia, after atlantic salmon.

What’s the Catch?

• In Thailand, prawns are farmed inland in ponds or in cages along coasts or riverbanks. Establishing prawn farms meant widespread clearing in mangrove swamps, and Thailand lost more than half its mangroves. The country has since replanted many swamps, and clearing is now illegal.
• Thai prawn farms are not self-sufficient. The prawns live on a commercial feed made partly from fishmeal, a product that usually contains ground up wild marine animals trawled from the sea floor.
• Thai fishing boats bottom trawl the sea, weighing down nets and dragging them across the ocean floor, indiscriminately collecting anything and everything in their path. This causes grave damage to habitats and ecosystems.
• Any larger fish caught can be marketed for food and are sold, while the remaining smaller sea animals are inappropriately deemed ‘trash fish,’ (they are actually an important part of the ecosystem) ground up to become fish meal, a key ingredient in prawn feed.

Website What's the Catch?