Project number: 2019-145
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $45,567.50
Principal Investigator: Rhys Arangio
Organisation: Austral Fisheries Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 18 Jul 2020 - 29 Oct 2020
Contact:
FRDC

Need

We have seen evidence of counterfeit versions of our Glacier 51 Toothfish brand being used in international markets. We want to be able to provide verifiable proof that the toothfish product carrying our label is in fact our fish, while at the same time be able to decipher where this counterfeit product is being sourced from. Source Certain International's (SCI), Source Connect program will aim to deliver the capacity to verify toothfish provenance to the specific area within the HIMI fishery or to prove that certain toothfish product is not from the HIMI fishery. If this succeeds, we may be able to map the chemical profile of toothfish globally, to help this issue more broadly. This process may also have additional scientific benefits with regard to stock structure and movement, but we will not know the potential of this until initial samples are analysed.

Objectives

1. Establish that there are sufficient markers determinable for Patagonian Toothfish to construct the TSW Trace® profile (fingerprint).
2. Establish if there are any limitations as to where on the fish the sample of flesh required for analysis needs to be collected to build the appropriate reference database and in turn, how does this limit the scope of any in-market investigation.
3. Investigation the application of Source Certain's technology to map the fishery and potentially enable the discrimination and hence verification of tooth fish flesh to a discrete provenance location, a zone within the fishery.

Related research

Industry
Environment
Environment