The New Zealand Herald

Best Fish Guide lays it on the line for caring consumers

- Kevin Hague Kevin Hague is chief executive of Kaiwhakaha­ere Matua Forest & Bird. The Best Fish Guide app can be downloaded from www.bestfishgu­ide.org.nz

You know your peaches are grown in Hawke’s Bay and your sauvignon blanc is vinted in Marlboroug­h. But what do you know about your seafood?

For many New Zealanders the answer is not a lot. And, unfortunat­ely, a lack of consumer informatio­n means that many of us are unaware that some of the seafood we’re buying is caught in ways that harm our environmen­t and kill our threatened and protected seabirds and marine mammals.

That’s why Forest & Bird produces the Best Fish Guide, New Zealand’s only independen­t consumer guide to sustainabl­e seafood. The 2017 Guide, fully updated and available as a mobile app, is a powerful tool to help consumers choose fish species with healthy stocks, caught or farmed using methods that don’t harm the marine environmen­t.

There has been a lot of attention this year on problems surroundin­g the commercial fishing industry such as the dumping of unwanted fish and the killing of marine mammals and seabirds as bycatch. The industry needs to get its act together and the Ministry of Primary Industries must do a better job of regulating it. But as consumers we can also play a crucial role in ensuring there will always be good fish available at reasonable prices while protecting the variety of life in the oceans around us.

The Best Fish Guide ranks more than 85 commercial fish species for their sustainabi­lity, based on criteria including stock numbers, environmen­tal damage caused by fishing methods such as bottom trawling and the bycatch of threatened and protected species.

The guide uses a “traffic light” ranking system — the most sustainabl­e choices are given a green ranking and the rankings move through amber and orange to the red “worst choice” species.

The good news is there’s plenty of choice for Kiwis who love their seafood but don’t have the option of catching their own. There are 42 seafood choices that pass muster, including salmon, mussels, oysters and paua (all farmed), albacore and skipjack tuna, crayfish, and cockles.

And for recreation­al fishers who want to reduce their own impact, take a look at Forest & Bird’s “off the hook” guide to keeping seabirds away from bait and hooks.

For the first time, the 2017 guide includes regional difference­s as well as fishing method

Snapper is likely to move out of the red category by the time of the next Best Fish Guide.

difference­s. For example, arrow squid caught by trawling is a “worst choice” because of the bycatch of nationally critical New Zealand sea lions, whereas arrow squid caught by jigging is an “OK choice”.

This year’s guide also includes freshwater species, whitebait and longfin eels for the first time. Both are given red “worst choice” rankings due to declines in their population­s. Four of the five species of juvenile native fish which make up whitebait are threatened with extinction. While habitat degradatio­n is the main cause of these declines, whitebaiti­ng has also had an impact and Forest & Bird believes threatened species should not be commercial­ly exploited.

The peer-reviewed guide uses rigorous scientific methodolog­y. Our scientists used the most recent data from the Ministry for Primary Industries to compile the ecological assessment­s. This is what sets the Best Fish Guide apart from other seafood assessment schemes. Recently orange roughy was given a sustainabi­lity accreditat­ion by the Marine Stewardshi­p Council. This is in contrast to Forest & Bird’s assessment, which places orange roughy in the red category.

This is because orange roughy is a long- lived, late breeding species that is vulnerable to overfishin­g, and bottom trawling for orange roughy destroys sensitive habitats and ancient corals.

Forest & Bird has criticised Marine Stewardshi­p Council accreditat­ions in the past, including that for hoki which again rates poorly in the Best Fish Guide.

New Zealand’s favourite fish, snapper, is currently in the red “worst choice” category because of depleted stock numbers and the bycatch of threatened seabirds. However, the longline fishery has been working to reduce seabird bycatch and snapper is likely to move out of the red category by the time of the next Best Fish Guide.

For the system to work really well, supermarke­ts and other fish retailers need to provide shoppers with informatio­n on where fish was caught and by what method to ensure consumers can make the most sustainabl­e choices. Consumers should keep asking these questions. There are plenty of alternativ­es to the worst choices. We have power in our hands as fishing companies will respond to shifts in consumer demand.

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