Is your seafood dinner harming threatened species?
Australia’s weak import controls fuel illegal fishing overseas and harm our ocean. Strong transparency and traceability laws will protect threatened species and reward responsible fishers.
Up to 70% of the seafood Australians eat is imported, yet much of it enters our market without robust traceability or transparency requirements. This creates a dangerous loophole. Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing continues to devastate marine ecosystems worldwide, driving overfishing, killing threatened species and fuelling human rights abuses, while undercutting responsible Australian fishers who operate to higher standards.
Australia is uniquely exposed. Our proximity to regional IUU hotspots, combined with weak import controls, risks turning our market into a destination for seafood other countries reject. As global tariffs and trade disruptions intensify, exporters are actively seeking markets with fewer safeguards. Without urgent reform, illicit catch will continue to slip through our borders and onto Australian plates.
AMCS is leading the national push for world-class seafood import controls and stronger fisheries transparency, at home and abroad. We have helped secure progress toward a draft import framework and stronger Country of Origin Labelling, while exposing gaps in monitoring that have revealed higher levels of threatened species bycatch in Australian fisheries than previously reported.
Now is the critical implementation phase.
We are seeking to raise funds in 2026 to secure and strengthen Australia’s seafood imports framework and domestic transparency reforms. By donating TODAY you can help ensure:
- Illegal seafood is stopped at the border through a globally benchmarked import control system with mandatory traceability.
- Threatened species deaths are reduced by using independent monitoring data to drive stronger fisheries management.
- Full supply chain transparency, including seafood labelling that lets consumers know what they are eating, where it was caught or farmed, and under what conditions.
- Australia solidifies its commitment to transparency by aligning with the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency and shrinking market access for IUU fishing worldwide.
Together, we can close the loopholes, restore credibility, and protect our ocean from illegal and destructive fishing.
Explore how you can help enable this important work below.
All donations over $2 are 100% tax-deductible. The projects featured in the Funding Prospectus are priority campaign activities and needs for which we are urgently seeking funds – current at the time of posting or going to press. As time progresses, there may be some cases in which the project you have selected may already be fully funded. In that instance, we would be delighted to discuss where the need is greatest at the given time. All of our campaigns work in symbiotic support of our mission to protect our oceans. Please be assured your gift will go to work to be the voice for Australia’s oceans, working on the big issues that risk our ocean wildlife.
