Evans lifting the lid on grim seafood secrets

You don’t go to a restaurant and order a mammal pie, so why is it normal to buy a fish pie?

Matthew Evans in a scene from documentary series, What's the Catch? Supplied by SBS

You don’t go to a restaurant and order a mammal pie, so why is it normal to buy a fish pie?

It’s a question asked by chef, food critic and television presenter Matthew Evans, who wants to lift the lid on Australia’s seafood and see what’s really cooking in his new three-part SBS documentary series What’s the Catch?

When the Tasmania-based Evans first went about researching for the show about Australian seafood, he figured he would be doing a lot of work in his home country.

But it turns out that only about 30 per cent of the seafood Aussies consume comes from our largely sustainable fisheries.

The other 70 per cent comes from overseas.

And although some of that seafood is from South Africa and New Zealand, which are certified sustainable, a lot of seafood isn’t.

“I went to Thailand to look at some fish farming and it certainly was a huge eye-opener for me,” Evans said.

“It’s where the majority of Australia’s imported prawns come from.

“The damage that they are doing to their reefs and oceans, just so we can have cheap prawns, blows your mind.

“I wept when I saw the size of the net (and what) they were dragging out of the water.”

He says the whole water column, from the fish to the tiniest little crabs dwelling in the mud at the bottom, are all turned into prawn food.

“Just so we can have cheap prawns,” he said.

“The tragedy will be that poorer countries in the world will have ruined their oceans and have annihilated their fishing industry, just so people in the west can have cheap prawns on our pizza.”

What Evans hopes will come out of What’s the Catch? is reasonably simple. “I want Australians to know what’s on their plates and I want them to ask the questions.” So if you do order a fish pie, Evan says ask what species it is. “(And) where is it from and how is it caught, or is it farmed?,” he says.

But there’s an even bigger end game. Evans wants the public to get behind a campaign and senate inquiry he’s started to help Aussies buying and consuming seafood.

“It is about the labelling of seafood, so trying to force people – the wholesalers, retailers, and chefs – to tell us exactly what’s on our plate,” he said.

What we will save in the end, is our oceans and its inhabitants, Evans says.

“What’s great about ­seafood is it can be managed in a way that it replenishes,” Evans said.

What’s the Catch? with Matthew Evans begins tomorrow, October 30, at 8.30pm, SBS One