CANBERRA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chefs at more than 40 Australia's top restaurants have signed a commitment to only serve sustainably-sourced seafood.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) on Thursday announced its GoodFish program -- an initiative whereby signees pledge not to serve seafood that is red-listed in the society's Sustainable Seafood Guide.
Ben Shewry, the chef and owner of Melbourne's Attica restaurant -- which was the only Australian restaurant to make the top 50 in The World's 50 Best Restaurants awards for 2018, coming in at number 20 -- was revealed as the project's official ambassador.
He said that he was "absolutely thrilled and honoured" to take on the role as ambassador having used the Sustainable Seafood Guide for a decade to guide his own sourcing.
"We have a moral responsibility. We need to understand the ingredients that we are cooking with, and no more so than what comes from the oceans," he said in a media release on Thursday.
Popular menu items red-listed by the AMCS include farmed Atlantic salmon, wild prawns caught on Australia's east coast and wild barramundi caught in Queensland.
"Chefs have an incredible ability to talk to people through food. We are trusted guides for society on how we eat and what we eat," chef and GoodFish manager Sascha Rust said.
