Guiding Australian Consumers to Sustainable Seafood Choices - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 396

knowledge and/or lack of management infrastructure and/or moderate to high
species vulnerability and/or history of species decline;
or
(d) the aquaculture methods employed pose considerable environmental risks but
those risks are considered avoidable with greater attention and investment in
solution seeking, e.g. prawn ponds, pond/tank finfish aquaculture.
Species categorised as 'Think Twice' are those that, with some improvements in
their management, could in the future be categorised as 'Better Choice' species. The
Australian Marine Conservation Society used the Guide to alert consumers about
the plight of these species which are not currently listed by BRS as 'Overfished'
but are of growing conservation concern.

'Better Choice' species
The following criteria applied to species included in the “Better Choice” category:

(a) the species is not listed by BRS as 'overfished' or as 'being overfished';

and

(b) the species is relatively robust and of no major regional concern;

and

(c) the species is relatively well managed;

or

(d) the species is produced in extensive aquaculture system or in fully closed

aquaculture systems that do not rely on wild fisheries to produce fishmeal for
feed.

Species in the 'Better Choice' section of the Guide are those the Australian Ma-
rine Conservation Society recommends to consumers as preferred seafood options.
However, a 'Better Choice' rating is not equivalent to a sustainability accreditation
for the species, because even 'Better Choice' species are invariability captured or
farmed, using methods operating in differing management systems, each of which
faces its own unique set of sustainability challenges. For example, calamari is of-
ten caught using seabed trawlers, and while the calamari stocks may not be under
threat, the trawling method used to capture them has impacts on seabed habitats
and bycatch species.

19.3.2 Criteria - aquaculture
Increasingly, consumers are seeking advice about the sustainability of different
types of aquaculture, particularly as concerns about the impacts of activities such as
seacage aquaculture and prawn farming increase. To guide consumers towards more