About Fish
Australians have always had a close association with the sea and a great appreciation of the excellent food that it provides. In this respect, we are fortunate in having possibly the greatest variety of seafood available anywhere. Australian seafood is second-to-none in quality and is enjoyed by millions of people both locally and overseas.
Australia has a diverse range of freshwater and marine habitats that support many aquatic species. Australia’s maritime zone is one of the largest in the world, covering about 14 million square kilometres: about twice the area of Australia’s landmass. The zone contains about 4,500 known species of finfish (and perhaps tens of thousands of invertebrate species) — most in relatively small numbers. More than 800 seafood species are commercially harvested and sold in Australia, under about 300 marketing names, for local and overseas consumption.
Over the past 15 years the FRDC and its partners, in particular CSIRO and Seafood Services Australia, have been working to catalogue the great diversity. As a result of this work a number of user friendly resources have been developed.
Probably the most significant has been the development of the Fish Names Standard. Extensive work on standardizing names used for fish in Australia has been undertaken since the early 1980s by industry, governments, scientists and other stakeholders. Major progress has been made since 1992 as a result of strategic investments by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. SSA has maintained this momentum since it accepted responsibility for standardizing fish names in 2001, culminating in the development of this Standard and the Fishnames Database. To search the database visit the Seafood Services Australia website.
Three wonderful hard copy publications developed were:
