Marathon swimmer fights to save grandmother of the sea
08 Jun 2006
Champion marathon swimmer, Susie Maroney, has joined the fight to help protect the threatened, long-lived and slow-breeding orange roughy fish (also known as deep sea perch or sea perch).
In just 30 years many populations of orange roughy world-wide have declined by more than 70% according to a WWF/TRAFFIC report (PDF 2.0MB).
"I am shocked to hear that orange roughy is being driven to extinction and that many of the marine species seem destined to follow. As someone who spends a lot of time in the ocean, I am acutely aware of the changes that have taken place," says Susie Maroney.
WWF has been pushing for the government to list the long-lived and slow-breeding orange roughy as an endangered species. orange roughy can live for more than 100 years and don't start reproducing until they're almost 30 years old, so they are truly the grandmother of fish species.
"As Australians, we all need to ask if the fish we're eating is being fished sustainably. It's in our hands to demand this of our supermarkets and fish suppliers," said Susie Maroney.
WWF supports sustainable seafood through Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. This is happening in the U.S. and the U.K. through companies such as Walmart and Sainsbury. Australians need to demand the same of our supermarkets.
Orange roughy are highly vulnerable to overfishing. Fishing trawlers are not only ruining the richly diverse sea mountains where orange roughy are found, but overfishing mean these fish are being wiped out before they can reproduce. Since the first catches of orange roughy were reported in 1977, over one million tonnes of orange roughy have been caught worldwide1.
In the fish shops orange roughy is known under a raft of different names including most commonly as deep sea perch and also sea perch.
The demise of the orange roughy in our waters has been caused by the Australian government allowing fishing catch limits that are too high. This unsustainable management of orange roughy is also occurring around the world.
"Consumers should challenge their fish suppliers and supermarkets to provide more information on where their fish comes from," said Lorraine Hitch, Sustainable Fisheries Officer at WWF-Australia.
Find out more
Angela Heck, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1268
Mobile: 0421 053 023
Email: aheck@wwf.org.au
References & Notes
- The report Managing risk and uncertainty in deep-sea fisheries: lessons from orange roughy - can be downloaded from TRAFFIC's website (PDF 2.0 MB).
- The report Follow the Leader: Learning from experience and best practice in regional fisheries management organisations is available on WWF International's site.
- The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a registered charity set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. It has developed a voluntary international fishery certification programme and eco-label, based on the MSC Standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. The eco-label can be found on more than 350 seafood products sold in retail outlets and restaurants in 26 countries and provides a simple way for consumers to make the best environmental choice in seafood. In total, 50 fisheries worldwide are engaged in the MSC's environmental programme, representing over three million tonnes of seafood. Eighteen fisheries have been certified as sustainable against the MSC Standard, and a further 17 fisheries are in assessment. Details of the fisheries engaged in the programme are available on the MSC website in addition to a list of where to buy MSC-labelled seafood.
- The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has produced a useful source of information about the fish that you should consider buying, and those you should not. Note that this provides a guide only for the state of the specific fish species, and does not take into account impacts of fishing such as: "do they capture seabirds or turtles."
