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Living Lightly column

Sustainable Easter

By Tess Middleton, Fin Free Albury Wodonga

Can you believe it’s the end of March already?! Where has this year gone! As Easter is only a few days away I thought I would remind you of your sustainable seafood options for Good Friday (and any day of the year!)

Now I know I may sound like a broken record when I ask you to say no to flake but I promise I have my reasons! So let’s begin here.

Flake is shark meat.  What shark can be the million dollar question as with the current processes there is no defined way to track from the ocean to the shop. Flake is a by-product of the shark fin trade and it works in 2 ways;

  1. Sharks are killed for their fins, and if their bodies aren’t kicked back overboard and left to drown, which can take days (imagine you’re swimming, minding your own business and then you are hurled onto a boat, you’re not a life you a merely another number for the greedy and uneducated, your arms and legs cut off and your torso is kicked overboard and left to die slowly and painfully – this is shark finning – this is the reality and this is happening every minute of every day) Then their meat is sold back onshore – this is flake!
  2. Sharks are caught for their meat and their fins are then sold overseas, usually to black markets in Asia.

So this my friends is why I  go on about flake, but it can also be the consumer who suffers as flake has been scientifically tested and found to contain the following chemicals:

  • Mercury
  • Arsenic
  • Lead
  • Urea
  • Micro plastics
  • PCB’s.

The mercury levels alone in tested samples were found to contain levels 3 times higher than what is safe for human consumption, causing neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and can even cause pregnant women to miscarry.

Now why order this when you have so many other options?! Here are more sustainable and healthy options for you:

  • Salmon
  • Barramundi
  • Whiting
  • Snapper
  • Flathead
  • Mussels
  • Oysters
  • Crabs.

If you are wanting any more information, please visit www.sustainableseafood.org.au or ask me via my Facebook page – Fin Free Albury Wodonga

Wishing you a lovely Flake Free Easter!

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