Did you know that every year we harvest over 500,000,000 kg of anchovies in our waters, and yes they are on SASSI’s green data list.
Catching them with nets, does no damage to the ocean floor and there is very little by-catch as they shoal close to the surface or mid-water.
The Cape Anchovy is regarded as one of the best in the world as they feed off the West Coast, in the cold Benguela current.
Anchovies are high in essential nutrients and packed with Omega-3, critical for brain development of children. We should include anchovy products in our school feeding scheme.
As they feed on plankton and are at the bottom of the food chain, they are regarded as the “cleanest” seafood to eat.
So how much of the half a million tons of anchovies do we consume?
NONE or almost none. Some is used to flavor anchovy paste.
Almost the entire catch is converted into fish meal, which is used in aquaculture for prawn and salmon farming, but most is exported to China as animal feed.
I think this is criminal.
DAFF – (Department of Forestry and Fisheries) please can we consider creating jobs, adding value and lets stop exporting our resources without processing them further.
We should take a 5 year view on this, and the industry needs to commit to the Governments stated objective of creating jobs. The annual quota allocation should be based on the how much is planned to be processed to higher value commodities in our country, to benefit our people.
My thought for the day.
Ciao
Massimo