Matthew shows the devastating impact of our insatiable demand for prawns and launches a campaign to help us all be part of the solution to save our seafood. Prawns are one of Australia’s most popular seafoods, yet few of us know the real cost of how they are produced. In this episode Matthew travels to Thailand to see for himself how our desire for cheap prawns is destroying the oceans, before returning to Australia to press for better labelling on all our seafood so that consumers are involved in safeguarding our seafood for years to come.
Matthew learns how the crucial role of the shark in our oceans is under threat unless we get better labelling laws on flake and the rest of our seafood. Not everyone knows that when we order flake and chips, we are actually eating shark. The problem is no one knows what species it is, so we could be eating an endangered species on a Friday night without knowing it. Matthew decides that until we get better seafood labelling we should swap out flake for other more sustainable alternatives.
With wild fish stocks reaching their limit, Matthew sets out to find how else we can continue to supply seafood from an exhausted ocean. Is fish farming the answer? If so what fish should we farm and how? Matthew has been pressing for a change in the laws on seafood labelling so we all know what species we are eating and where it is from. But with wild fish stocks at their limit, we need to find more ways of providing sustainable seafood to a growing population. Fish farming or aquaculture could be the answer, but it’s crucial we farm the right species – so what are they?