Australia Proposes More Protections for Chilean Sea Bass

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Australia Proposes More Protections

for Chilean Sea Bass

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Australia Proposes More Protections

for Chilean Sea Bass

Chefs and Food Professionals Call on

U.S. Government to Support Protections

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, Jun. 7 -/E-Wire/-- Yesterday, the government of Australia took the first step to achieving greater protection for Chilean Sea Bass (Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish) by sponsoring a proposal to list it as an Appendix II species at the Convention for the International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) later this year. If the proposal is adopted when CITES meets in November in Santiago, Chile, 158 countries will be required to refuse toothfish that is not accompanied by documentation certifying it was legally caught. Currently only 23 of the more than 50 nations that trade in toothfish require this documentation.

Chilean Sea Bass burst onto restaurant menus only ten years ago, and its popularity with diners has fueled vast amounts of illegal fishing that, according to a news release from the Government of Australia, could lead to commercial extinction in three to five years. Across the United States, nearly 600 chefs and food professionals have agreed to Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass until its populations have stabilized and better safeguards are in place to protect the fish from probable commercial extinction.

"Chilean Sea Bass was the number-one selling signature item on my menu at Oceana, but given the facts it was easy for me to stop preparing it more than two years ago," said Rick Moonen of Restaurant rm, opening in August in New York. "Chefs and food professionals have done their part, now it's time for the U.S. government to do their part."

"If this proposal passes it brings us one step closer to putting Chilean Sea Bass back on the menu and back on the fish counter," said NET's Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass campaign manager Andrea Kavanagh.

"As a chef who took the first step to help save this fish by taking it off my menu years ago, I urge the U.S. government to cosponsor and support this proposal so I can one day serve Chilean Sea Bass again," said Nora Poullion of Nora and Asia Nora in Washington, DC.

â¦2 Australia Proposes More Protections for Chilean Sea Bass

A recently released U.S. government fact sheet reports that illegal fishing accounts for three out of every four pounds of Chilean Sea Bass that is consumed globally each year. Successful action at CITES would extend the reach of the current trade measures developed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to all countries that trade in toothfish and effectively close all ports to illegal fishermen.

"As the second -largest importer of Chilean Sea Bass, we expect the United States to support this proposal as an additional measure to close ports to illegally-caught Chilean Sea Bass," said Mark Stevens, fisheries campaigner for The Antarctica Project, a partner with NET on the Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass campaign. "Our government was a leader in adopting the current regulations that require 23 nations to trade only legally caught fish. The U.S. must now follow Australia's lead to expand that obligation to 135 additional countries."

National Environmental Trust

Sarah Bruchmann, Press Officer,

National Environmental Trust,

[REDACTED-EMAIL]

http://www.environet.org

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