Mercury test may ban N.Z. fish

Press, 21 December 1981, Page 2

Mercury test may ban N.Z. fish

Australia is imposing a form of trade ban on the bigselling New Zealand fish, orange roughy, by stringently testing for mercury content, according to fishing industry sources.

Six containers, each holding about 16 tonnes of orange roughy, are reported to have been rejected after mercury samples were taken in Victoria over the last two weeks.

The assistant general manager of the Fishing Industry Board, Mr Howard Stone, said that in the last six weeks Australian authorities had tested every shipment of the deep-water species, which was marketed in Australia as sea perch.

Mr Stone said. that some industry sources were saying •that the Australian action was because of the popularity of the fish, which was selling “extremely successfully” in Australia.

Between 3000 and 5000 tonnes had been sold in Australia in the last 12 months.

Orange roughy had a great future on the international market, and the Australian fishing industry was getting very upset by its success, Mr Stone said. He said that the Victorian tests which rejected the fish were “not on a very scientific basis, because they take only one sample and the whole shipment is down the tube.” New Zealand had the same regulations on mercury content as Victoria, permitting only 0.5 parts per million of the sample. Australia could accept the tests conducted on the fish before it left New Zealand, but lately had launched what appeared to be a blitz.

The mercury regulations were ' conservative, and heavy metal levels naturally accrued in fish, he said. A scientist at the Ministry of Fisheries, Dr W. Van Den Brock, said in Wellington yesterday that he would hate to think how much orange roughy a person would have to eat to be poisoned by mercury. The Minimata scandal in Japan had involved concentrations of 40 parts per million. There might be extra mercury in the Chatham Rise, where the orange roughy was caught, because of undersea volcanoes.

A report from Melbourne has said that the Customs Bureau was awaiting a decision by importers on whether they wished to destroy the fish or re-export it to destinations which allowed the higher mercury levels. An industry spokesman said that the fish was imported in a skinless, boneless, white fillet form. The executive officer of the Victorian Fishing Industry Council, Mr Peter Heigh-

way, said that Victoria’s regulations on mercury levels were “ultra conservative.”

The council had suggested to the state Government and the National Health and Medical Research Council that the mercury level should be one partper million, in line with South Australia and Tasmania. There had never been evidence that any one in Australia had suffered from mercury poisoning after eating fish caught in a normal marine environment, Mr Heighway said. In Nelson, the chief executive of Sealord Products, Ltd, Mr Graham Frances, said that the way the testing was being done in Australia looked as though it was “politically based.” The rejection of the fish could be designed to put pressure on the highly-com-petitive species, he said. "Our company has not had any orange roughy rejected yet, but we have been concerned that this was likely to happen,” Mr Frances said. “The way it has occurred sounds as if it is politically based.

“First a delegation of Australians were here worried about the high level of new Zealand exports on their market, next there were delaying tactics while fish were tested, and now this.”

Sealord’s Auckland-based marketing manager, Mr Robert de Winter, said the Australians had announced on Thursday that all shipments of New Zealand orange roughy and ling would be tested for mercury content from now on.

“Until now they have been random testing,” Mr de Winter said.

“There is no danger to humans with the 0.5 part per million level. If there was, the United States would have banned the fish long ago;” There was no possibility that rejected fish would be destroyed. There were many alternative markets for the species. “We would like to see an inter-government agreement so that the fish can be tested here by a reputable agency before export to save the cost of shipping back to New Zealand if the mercury content is too high,” he said. “Australia is important to us. It is the only market we have really developed so far for the species.” Mr de Winter rejected Australian assertions that orange roughy undercut the price of the local catch. “It is my belief that the Australian market needs the fish — it sells there on its quality,” he said. As far as he knew, Melbourne was the only port where New Zealand’s orange roughy exports experienced any problems.