How to get more local sardines on Australian plates – a win for nutrition, local fishers and the environment

Australians should be eating more healthy and nutritious foods – but that likely won’t happen unless they’re also cheap, easy to transport and store, and simple to prepare.

Sardines fit the bill – they’re packed with healthy oils and calcium and have less mercury than bigger fish – and they’re increasingly appearing on menus at bars and restaurants (often served still in the can).

But while Australian sardines (Sardinops sagax) make up more than 25% of Australia’s total fisheries production, most of the sardines served in Australia are imported. Almost all Australian sardines are fed to tuna sold for export, used as fishing bait or in processed aquaculture feed and pet food.

This is a problem because it is depriving Australians of a nutritious, cheap and local food source.

My new paper, published in the journal Frontiers – Aquatic Food Systems, outlines a different vision that would see more local sardines on Australian plates, while also reducing emissions and boosting small, local fisheries.

Drawing on public consultations on the management of a proposed sardine fishery in Tasmania, I found strong support for local sardines to be used for food (for humans, not fish). Achieving this, however, will require overcoming several food system challenges – including boosting demand.

But what if I don’t like sardines?

That’s OK!

Everyone has different tastes, and this isn’t about forcing people to eat sardines.

But it’s worth noting the foods we like are determined by a range of factors including culture, marketing and experiences.

For example, Atlantic salmon was not popular in Japan until Norway launched its “Project Japan” strategy in the 1980s and ‘90s to create a new market for its surplus farmed fish. In Japan, Atlantic salmon went from a food to avoid to a sushi staple.

Closer to home, lobsters were once considered a “poor man’s food” until their relatively recent rebranding as a luxury product.

Clever rebranding and marketing could help boost demand for local sardines among Australians. But to really make a difference, several other challenges also need to be overcome.

Policy change

For the companies that harvest seafood, and governments that design management plans and policies, the most important things about fisheries are long-term biological sustainability and maximising economic returns.

Unfortunately, whether or not the product is boosting nutrition for Australians is currently considered “out of scope”.

So even though local sardines are super nutritious, they won’t end up on Australian dinner tables if it’s not profitable.

Changes in policy could help, though.

For example, small and medium-scale fishers need secure and stable fishing rights to ensure they can get loans to buy boats, fishing gear and processing equipment.

Large-scale enterprises don’t face the same financial constraints. At present, though, the larger enterprises interested in the sardine fishery would likely process sardines as aquaculture feed rather than human food.

So, one way to help get more local sardines onto Australian dinner tables is to consider how government agencies that manage fishing rights can provide longer-term, secure and consistent fishing rights to smaller fishers.

Establish clear and reliable markets

Fishers won’t fish for local sardines on any meaningful scale unless clear and reliable markets have been established.

Government could help small fishers explore new local markets for Australian sardines, such as public institutions.

Increasing the availability of sardines in residential aged care, for example, would support the recommendations of the recent aged care royal commission, which highlighted the need to improve food and nutrition given that 40% of aged care residents in Australia are malnourished.

Supporting fishers to supply residential aged care would help create new markets and certainty. It would also reduce the amount of imported seafood supplied to residential care food service kitchens. Governments could, for instance, act as a broker to connect aged care providers with fishers to develop contracts.

Supplying more local seafood, such as sustainably managed sardines, would be a climate-positive choice too. They have much lower greenhouse gas emissions, compared with other marine or terrestrial protein sources, and fewer food-miles than imported products.

Despite their value, fisheries are also often not recognised in key food policies and strategies.

People tend not to think of fishers as food producers and they don’t get the same levels of support as other food producers.

For example, the harvesting of wild fishery resources is not eligible for Tasmania’s AgriGrowth Loan Scheme. Under this scheme, the Tasmanian government provides low-interest loans to Tasmanian farm businesses and agri-food businesses.

It would help if state government departments – such as health and natural resource departments – took a joint approach to finding ways to get more local sardines on Australian plates.

A triple win

Developing a fishery that aims to meet demand for food, alongside ecological and economic targets, will also help ensure the fishery remains small.

This will reduce pressure on natural resources, as the volume of catch needed to meet that demand will likely be smaller than a larger fishery developed to meet demand for fish feed.

Sardines will probably never be as popular in Australia as they are in Portugal or Morocco.

However, replacing even some ultraprocessed foods in Australian diets with sardines would be a big win for health, small-scale fishers and the environment.