Good fish, bad fish

SA has a sensible system of knowing which seafood is sustainably produced, but you have to look for it

If it weren't for the six-year-old Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (Sassi), South Africans would have been eating a lot more endangered marine species right now.

Thanks to Sassi, a World Wide Fund for Nature awareness initiative that groups more than 100 types of seafood into colour-coded categories, more of us are becoming aware that so-called green seafood is good seafood and that orange seafood is the stuff under pressure, so we should avoid it where we can - or just choose green instead.

The stuff in the red category is in such trouble that this is the seafood we should never buy and, as a result of Sassi's efforts, its countrywide partner restaurants and retailers have also agreed not to sell any of it.

As Sassi partners, they're also urged to provide consumers with "adequately labelled" seafood that includes information on the product's origin and production method - which is where the application of the initiative's guidelines become clear as mud.

Asked to recommend green seafood, my Ocean Basket waiter suggested two orange-listed species (sole and prawns). Sassi's DrSamantha Petersen describes Ocean Basket as a major supporter of the initiative, but none of the seafood on the restaurant's menu was colour-coded or accompanied by information on where and how it was harvested.

Sassi's educational material, such as posters and pocket cards, was not anywhere within sight of the casual observer, which, presumably, includes most punters.

Same story at Sassi's other major partner restaurant, the Spur-owned franchise John Dory's, where the waiter claimed that "all" seafood on the menu was green - even though a variety of prawn, kingklip and sole dishes were on offer.

"We supply customers with the correct name (and) place of origin, as set out in our menu," Spur group MD Pierre van Tonder has countered - although this information was not on their menu when I looked at it.

I also randomly inspected the online menus of 16 additional Sassi partner restaurants. Of these, Blowfish in Cape Town was the only restaurant whose menu featured any colour-coding - in this instance, for green seafood. The majority of items were not accompanied by any details on their origins and not a single menu explained how its seafood was harvested.

And, at Pick n Pay's seafood counter, where product information was as rare as bluefin tuna, the attendant looked as though I'd ordered kangaroo maki when I asked her for some green fish.

Would it be so hard for Sassi's partners to colour-code their menus and products, and furnish these with the basic printed information needed by consumers who want to do the right thing?

John Dory's and Pick n Pay have expressed regret over the misleading recommendations by their staff and underlined the "ongoing" seafood-awareness training programmes to which the staff are exposed. They also stressed that Sassi's educational materials are available in all their outlets, with similar sentiments echoed by Ocean Basket.

"Sassi and sustainability are topics on our lips all the time," said Ocean Basket executive chairman George Nichas, who added that the group's products are labelled "with all the required information by Sassi as to ... species, origin and traceability of the merchandise. This packaging information would gladly be shown to a customer upon request."

As for colour-coded seafood, Pick n Pay's sustainable development manager, André Nel, was amenable to suggestions of dividing the retailer's display counters into green and orange sections, although he did not seem to think it was possible to colour-code the products themselves. "Sassi is a consumer-awareness programme (and) does not allow any specific product endorsement. We therefore are not allowed to label products in green or orange," he said.

Nel was being economical with the truth. In order to avoid creating the impression that Sassi is an endorsement programme, it does not allow the use of its own green and orange fish logos on any packaging. That does not, however, stop any retailer from designing its own green and orange logos and putting these on their packaging to mirror Sassi's lists. Woolworths has done this already - with Sassi's blessing.

As for restaurant menus - the most consumer-focused place to add colour codes and product information - Nichas did not see the point: "I am sure you would agree a menu with all the labelling information included would not be customer-friendly," he said.

What's going on here? Is colour-coding seafood a bit like the health warnings on cigarette packets - not exactly a sexy look, especially if the whole seafood counter or menu ends up looking like an ocean of orange? After all, where orange seafood is available for sale, one can only imagine the retailer or restaurant wants you to buy it.

TELL US: Do you think Sassi's partner restaurants and retailers are customer-friendly enough? E-mail tiara.greenlife@gmail.com

LOOK BEFORE YOU EAT

AGENTS OF ORANGE

As Ocean Basket's website says, it has "a whole lotta sole", which is, in fact, an orange-listed species. Shoreline, the eatery at Cape Town's Two Oceans Aquarium, only sells green-listed options, so why are more restaurants and retailers not following suit?

"None of the products on the orange list are contravening any laws of the land," Ocean Basket executive chairman George Nichas rightly pointed out.

"Moving to a situation where everyone is selling green-listed seafood is not going to happen overnight," added John Duncan of the WWF's Sustainable Fisheries Programme, an initiative that focuses on the fishing industry, while Sassi concentrates on the retail sector. "I hope in 10 to 15 years we achieve what you are looking for now ... It is a slow process that has a lot of economic ramifications, but look at where we've come from, six years ago, when Sassi started. We've made leaps and bounds with consumer awareness and the fact that the guys actually want to work with us now."

GREEN,ORANGE ... AND BLUE?

Woolworths is the first national retailer to colour-code its seafood. As based on the Sassi list, Woolworths's green logo means a product is good to eat and orange means a species is under pressure. Blue refers to farmed or imported seafood not listed by Sassi.

THE CATCH

Sassi's partners, such as Woolworths and Pick n Pay, claim to use stringent internal systems to audit their seafood supply chains. Pick n Pay - which in October signed a R6.1-million partnership with the WWF to help restore fish stocks - has also claimed it intends to appoint independent auditors later this year. But here's the catch: Sassi admits none of these supply chains have been independently audited so far - nor are Sassi's partners legally obliged to enforce the initiative's guidelines. Just because you see Sassi's emblem on a menu does not mean the restaurant has the initiative's approval.

THE MARINE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL

Founded by the WWF in 1997, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a global, independent certification organisation and, in order to become MSC-certified, a fishery must submit its operations for rigorous environmental assessment. The Deepwater Hake Association is the only MSC-certified fishery in Africa and its products - all of which carry the MSC's blue logo - are available at Checkers, Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths stores.

USEFUL CONTACTS

SMS the name of a seafood species to 0794998795 to find out whether it's on Sassi's green, orange or red list. You can also use Sassi's mobi site by typing wwfsassi.mobi into a cellphone with web access. Download colour-coded lists or pocket guides from www.wwfsassi.co.za.

NATURAL SELECTION

Encased in an embossed sterling frame, the "Life's Work" amulet by US organisation Friends of Honeybees holds a glowing drop of honey that equals one-twelfth of a teaspoon and symbolises the life's work of a single bee. Billed as the "new amber", the amulet can be ordered online for $150 (about R1000), with proceeds going to the Buzz for Bees campaign, an initiative that hopes to collect at least $1-million to help save the world's struggling honeybee populations from total collapse. Visit Friendsofhoneybees.net.