Catch of the Day

Catch of the Day

Why eating sharks is not sustainable

When buying shark fillets from your fishmonger there's no way of knowing what type of shark you're actually buying. You could be eating dusky or bronze whaler (sold at Coles supermarkets), dogfish or wobbegong. There are over 300 species of sharks; one thing that many shark species share is long life histories and low fecundity. This means that it takes a long time to reach sexual maturity, they don't reproduce very often and when they do, they have few offspring at each event.

Would you eat a panda steak?

To what age do you think a fish can live? Two, five, maybe ten years? Have you even thought about it?

Some fish have been found to live up to 150 years of age! One such species is the orange roughy. Many deep ocean dwelling fish, such as orange roughy, have long lifespans. But with the long lifespan comes slow reproduction rates. Some humans start reproducing earlier than these fish; orange roughy reach sexual maturity at around 25 - 30 years!

Where does your tuna come from?

Tuna has to be one of the most popular fish eaten in the world. And one of the most valuable. Some individual Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) have commanded up to AUS $40,000 PER FISH before being onsold at various markets in Japan. This is the predominant reason why this fish is on the verge of being commercially extinct.