Turning the Tide Newsletter – Summer 2025
Orange Roughy
Your support for the orange roughy has been critical.
Last month we lost our appeal against the eco-certification of Australia’s endangered orange roughy fishery with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) blue tick.
The decision to support serving endangered species as ‘sustainable’ is a major blow to marine conservation. There is no justification for certifying a fishery that targets an endangered species.
It’s not the news we wanted. The bottom line is that the MSC’s broken standard allows blatant greenwashing. We will continue to fight for the orange roughy and against greenwashing.
We beat the fishery in its first attempt to gain MSC certification in 2021 because it was classified as an endangered species in Australia. However, MSC weakened its standards twice so assessors could disregard governments’ endangered species declarations.
Australians know endangered species are not sustainable seafood. It’s unacceptable that this level of greenwashing has succeeded, betraying well-meaning shoppers who will be misled.
Our work will not stop here. We will continue to fight for strong national nature laws to ensure that endangered species such as the orange roughy get the protection they deserve.