Long way from the humble tuna can: ecolabels reach menus

• Tom Kime's sustainable seafood recipes

No longer will sustainable seafood logos be simply slapped on cans of tuna. The blue ecolabel is set to appear on fine dining menus.

Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne is the first fine dining establishment in Australia to achieve the ecolabel certification from the internationally respected Marine Stewardship Council.

The restaurant joins the Fish and Co cafe in Annandale, The View cafe at Taronga Zoo and three branches of Clancy's Fish Pub in Western Australia that have proved their ocean-friendly practices to the MSC in the past three years.

Rockpool's Neil Perry hopes all seven of his restaurants, including three in Sydney, will be certified.

''Since our Bluewater Grill days in 1986, we've been pushing the importance of sustainable fishing and fishermen using best practice,'' Mr Perry said. ''[Chefs should] know what they are buying, where it comes from and the impact it has on species biomass and bycatch.''

Rockpool patrons are now further assured the supply chain is transparent and traceable.

Each week, the restaurant serves 10 kilograms of yellow-eyed mullet from the MSC-certified Lakes and Coorong Fishery and up to 120 kilograms of prawns from Spencer Gulf King Prawns, both in South Australia.

The traceability standard is a weapon in the MSC's efforts to eliminate overfishing and destructive fishing methods in oceans, said the MSC's program manager in Australia, Patrick Caleo.

''Seventy per cent of seafood consumed by Australians is imported and not every country shares the same environmental standards.''

There are more than 50 MSC-certified restaurants around the world, with the majority in England, including Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, which has two Michelin stars and achieved certification four years ago.

Mr Caleo believes 50 restaurants in Australia will be certified within five years. But he concedes that too many consumers are not aware of the ecolabel and an educational program is required.

''We want restaurants to sell it and we want it to be meaningful for customers as well,'' he said.

It is a point acknowledged by Tom Kime, head chef at Fish and Co, which gained certification last year. He said that, in his home country of Britain, the MSC standard was promoted by his peers, including Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein. Mr Kime expects to see more MSC-certified restaurants and products in Australia because of the sharp increase in MSC-certified seafood suppliers in the past three years.

''You can come to my restaurant, you can eat the fish, you can check a QR code on your computer and it will say the fish that we're serving has the MSC logo and it will then say that our suppliers have that as well,'' he said.

''You can trace it back to the fishery, trace it to the quadrant of the ocean that it was fished, the name of the captain, the name of the boat. It's about science and proof.''

Nothing fishy on the plate

An MSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certified restaurant has met the global standard for seafood traceability which means the seafood can be traced from plate, to kitchen, to processor, all the way back to the patch of ocean where it was caught.

Patrons can trust the seafood sold at MSC-certified venues is sourced from independently certified fisheries and that it has not been replaced or substituted with any other seafood product.

While the certification is valid for three years, eateries must still undergo annual and random audits.