The illegal trafficking of high-value seafood, such as Australian abalone, could become an issue of the past, with researchers successfully tracing the source of shellfish through their shells.
Abalone is a gastropod mollusc, the meat of which is regarded as a delicacy in many cultures, and became considered a luxury item as it gained popularity. As global populations of abalone decline, increased pressure is placed on Australia’s fisheries to meet international demand.
Around 50 per cent of the global supply of abalone is caught in Australian waters, with almost half of that from Tasmania. Restrictions on harvesting have led to a skyrocketing price, which has resulted in the emergence of a profitable illegal market over the last 20 years.
To address this critical food fraud issue, University of South Australia scientists have developed a method of analysing the chemical elements in seafood shells to determine the exact ocean environment they originated from, and whether they were produced in the wild or farmed.
In 2022, University of South Australia marine ecologists, Dr Zoe Doubleday and Dr Jasmin Martino, identified chemical fingerprints common to the bones and shells of marine life from specific ocean environments, allowing them to track where individual seafood comes from.
This study, published in Fish and Fisheries journal, built a map of ocean chemistry that could distinguish the origin of seafood.
At the time, Dr Doubleday said that the advantage of chemical fingerprinting is that it’s difficult to falsify.
“Now that we have established a universal chemical marker, with ongoing research and development, it could transform the way we provenance seafood on a global scale.”
The 2024 study, published through the Royal Society Open Science journal, builds on the existing research.
Dr Doubleday and Dr Martino continue their research, using analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes in Australian abalone shells to trace geographical provenance with over 80 per cent accuracy, as well as the production method, whether they were wild or farmed, with an accuracy of 64 per cent.
The isotropic fingerprints identified the provenance of Australian abalone collected from different farms, as well as wild abalone caught in different state jurisdictions, a method which could be used to trace valuable shellfish species in future, supporting sustainable seafood practices.
Both the 2022 and 2024 studies were sponsored by the government’s Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, and undertaken by Dr Doubleday with collaborators at the University of South Australia.
