Seafood in Australia

Seafood in Australia comes from local and international commercial fisheries, aquaculture and recreational anglers. It is an economically important sector, and along with agriculture and forestry contributed $24,744 million to Australia's GDP in year 2007–2008, out of a total GDP of $1,084,146 million. Commercial fisheries in Commonwealth waters are managed by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, while commercial and recreational fishing in state waters is managed by various state-level agencies.

The sustainable seafood movement is growing in Australia as consumers become more aware of conservation issues and the importance of maintaining . Organisations such as the Marine Stewardship Council and GoodFishBadFish have released guides helping consumers make sustainable seafood choices.

The largest share, 22%, of the whole gross value generated by seafood production in the Commonwealth area – not only in Australia – is attributable to Tasmania, while South and Western Australia follow with 21% and 20% each. Australia has special rights over the exploitation of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extending 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastline, exceeding that of its land mass. Within the EEZ seazone free use of marine resources is allowed (Geoscience Australia. 2005. Maritime Boundary Definitions). Australia's fishing zone is the third largest in the world, covering 11 million square kilometres, yet Australia is only the 52nd largest producer in terms of volume.

Fisheries production consists mainly of seafood goods which are marketed for human consumption, but also of non-edible fisheries products, such as pearls and fish meal. Australian seafood product, like most of other countries', includes both wild catch fisheries and aquaculture production. The national product, finally, encompasses also the portion addressed to export, but it does not include the amount of fishery imported by Australia from abroad.

In the year 2007–2008, Australia exported fisheries products for a value of $1.3 billion, approximately 80% of which was derived from edible fishery export, such as shellfish and fish; the remainder was non-edible products, being predominantly pearls. Despite the still considerable share of the domestic product resulting from export, the purchases of Australian seafood from foreign countries has fallen by 10%, if compared to the rates of the previous year. Such a fall is estimated to be due to a general fall in the whole volume of edible fisheries production. So, since most of exports concern fish and shellfish, a decrease in the production of these goods (coming from both wild catch and aquaculture) affects the amount which can be exported.

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