Update
on Uncooked Salmonid Flesh Importation
Right
now I’m not feeling too flash about the overseas Salmon import situation…
why? Because at this point in time, you can buy New Zealand salmon at Noosa…
that’s why!
Both
Sydney and Melbourne fish-markets have uncooked New Zealand salmon for sale… and,
I’m informed, at the Fishrights 99 Conference in
Fremantle WA recently, for the evening meal, New Zealand salmon was served as a
main course.
Perhaps
you’re not aware of how importing raw salmon could affect our fisheries? What
do you do with the backbone, head etc of a fish you’ve filleted for the table?
It generally finishes up going to the dump one way or the other.
At the
dump rain washes over the waste salmon, runs off and inevitably finishes up in
one of our waterways. Any disease pathogens carried by those salmon are then in
our waters!
This
scene could occur at any dump in Australia… the run-off entering fresh-water
or salt-water areas… think about that!
Sea-gulls,
crows, and all other birds that use garbage dumps as scavenging areas… all
dine on those raw salmon carcases. How discriminating are they regarding where
their excrement is dropped, eh? Any-where!
And
that’s where these diseases will be spread… any-where! Rain once again
washes it to? You guessed it… our streams once again… where our fish live!
I
have been informed that there have been outbreaks of Whirling Disease in New
Zealand salmon farms. They have been controlled… but… this is the product
that they are now exporting to our country, and Australia to date has
experienced none of the diseases associated with salmon.
We
now have a no win situation! The authorities governing our country have allowed
this suspect product in, and our once ‘disease free fisheries’ status is
severely threatened!
It
strikes me as a queer situation, that although the Senate Inquiry into the
importation of this suspect salmon still has not been completed, the product
under question is freely allowed to enter the country.
At
one stage, a visiting Canadian stated that the object of this whole exercise was
to create a level playing field… ie when your product is on a par with my
product, (subject to diseases as is mine), ours will command the same prices as,
or better than, yours.
To
enable his country to trade competitively with Australia, he would put our
fisheries at risk to all diseases associated with salmon! Disgusting!
Whatever…
It’s now in our country, and I assume, the next lot to cross our shores will
be from countries with no control over these diseases.
Australian
Quarantine Inspection Service, (AQIS), I believe, has a lot to answer for. If /
when the associated diseases begin affecting our fisheries… who in amongst all
those AQIS staff will put his / her hand up and claim responsibility?
That’s
when the finger pointing will begin in earnest!
Those
who have been fighting this situation don’t object to cooked overseas salmon
entering the country, be it canned, smoked or whatever… as long as it is not
raw!
While
on the subject of importing raw fish… the immediate past should have warned
AQIS… just look at our devastated pilchard fishery!
Why
didn’t AQIS prevent that outbreak of disease by disallowing overseas pilchards
into our waters? I have it on high authority that the resulting herpes style
virus now affecting our pilchards will re-occur periodically… ie It is here to
stay… just like the one on the lip!
The
writing is on the wall for that fishery… and what of the fisheries that depend
on it? Pilchards are a very important cog in one huge food chain!
Who
in amongst the AQIS staff lays claim to that responsibility? Is AQIS only a
Clayton’s Quarantine Service?
Jim Rainey