Marketing names for fish and seafood in Australia

Table of Contents

Approved fish names
Background
Introduction
More on CSIRO database Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota (CAAB)
Who's who 

Approved fish names

The Approved Fish Names Brand was launched on 24 June 2008. Under this scheme Seafood Services Australia licenses seafood retailers to display the ‘Approved Fish Names’ logo. Seafood Services Australia maintains a list of retailers licensed under the scheme on their website.

The website lists seafood shops, restaurants and supermarkets which have committed to use approved national fish names standard on all seafood they sell.
This website eliminates the possibility of cheap fish being sold at a higher price under the guise of an exotic name.

The fish names standard applies one authorised name to each species of fish, whether harvested locally or imported. Examples include:

• Barramundi was previously known as barra; giant perch; palmer; or silver barramundi
• John Dory was previously known as doorkeeper’s fish; dory keparu; kuparu or St Peter’s fish
• Snapper was previously known as bedford snapper; cockney; pink snapper; pinkie; red bream; schnapper; squire or nobby

Background

Confused about what fish you bought? 

In 1998 DAFF produced a publication Marketing Names for Fish and Seafood in Australia. It contained a standard naming system which is considered vital for the efficient marketing of seafood across the vast continent of Australia. The book provided a pivotal tool for achieving efficient communication in both the domestic and export areas of Australia's important and rapidly expanding fishing industry. On adoption of these marketing names, both the trade and the consumer can have greater confidence in what they purchase. The DAFF fisheries book is no longer in print but was the precursor to two online services for marketing names in the seafood industry.

The CSIRO database Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota and Seafood Services Australia websites work together to implement the standard for names in the domestic and export fish and seafood industries in Australia. 

Introduction

CSIRO Marine Research, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, and Seafood Services Australia have joined forces with fish-book authors, fish taxonomists, recreational anglers, aquarists, and the fishing industry to produce a uniform list of names for Australian fishes.

The draft list of names was constructed from options used in Australia for each species. While there will be regional preferences for some fish names over others, the use of one name per species across the country will have great benefits.

More on CSIRO database Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota

CSIRO database CAAB - is a continuously maintained and expanding 8-digit coding system for aquatic organisms in the Australian region maintained by CSIRO Division of Marine Research.

CAAB currently contains codes and taxonomic information for the following aquatic organisms in the Australian region: 

• over 4,500 codes for fishes (CAAB category 37), representing virtually all known marine and freshwater species in Australian waters
  
• codes for other marine vertebrates (CAAB categories 39 - reptiles, 40 - birds, 41 - mammals), representing all currently recognised marine species in Australia
  
• around 20,000 codes for marine invertebrates (CAAB categories 10 to 36) in Australian waters, including sponges, stony corals, echinoderms, commercially important crustaceans and molluscs, tunicates, and other taxa
  
• codes for Australian seagrasses and mangroves (CAAB category 63) 
  
• codes for a representative selection of Australian seaweeds and microalgae (CAAB categories 52-55 and 70). 

The Australian Fish Names List is also available.

Who's who?

CSIRO database CAAB - hosts and develops a coding system for aquatic organisms in the Australian region maintained by CSIRO Division of Marine Research.

SSA - is a not-for-profit company established in 2001 by the  Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and the Australian seafood industry. Its goal is to enhance the profitability, international competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the Australian seafood industry.

FRDC - the leading Australian Government agency responsible for planning, investing in and managing fisheries research and development throughout Australia.