Something fishy about seafood labels

Flathead or flake? There's a good chance it could be neither. Greenpeace reckons there's something fishy about Australia's seafood labelling.

Many Australians are unaware what species of seafood is on their fork, whether it is fresh or frozen, or where it was caught.

Under current labelling laws, restaurants and retailers don't need to tell them.

Greenpeace CEO David Ritter who is heading the LabelMyFish campaign says some iconic Australia seafoods could in fact be cheaper, imported products.

"The Australian flathead we think we are eating may well be an imported, cheaper South American fish, of a completely different family, bottom-trawled in Argentinean waters," Mr Ritter said on Thursday.

"Australians simply don't know what it is they're putting in their mouths when they eat seafood. And that's not good enough.

"Australian consumers deserve to know what the species is they're eating, where it is from and how it was caught or farmed."

More than 70 per cent of the 370,000 tonnes of seafood eaten each year in Australia is imported from overseas according to the Department of Agriculture, with many favourites not caught locally.

Two in three barramundi eaten locally was imported from Asia, despite 90 per cent of consumers believing their fish was caught in Australian waters.

Farmer and former restaurant critic Matthew Evans said concerns from the catering and restaurant industry that seafood labelling would cost $300 million were unfounded.

"I don't know if the price of chalk has gone up a lot in the past few years but you can't tell me it's going to cost between $8000 and $10,000 per restaurant to get this information to consumers," Mr Evans said.

"A lot of this information already exists. The fisherman have to provide it when they catch the fish or when it's imported."

A Senate inquiry into seafood labelling is underway with the report due on December 4.