Dar seafood ppp standard

1.2 Nature of the industry
The Australian seafood industry markets a diverse range of approximately 600 marine and freshwater seafood species. The Australian fishing zone is 11 million square kilometres, the third largest in the world. Despite the size of the fishing zone, Australia is ranked 52^nd in the world with respect to commercial tonnage. The industry ranges from tropical to sub-Antarctic, open ocean to estuarine, marine to freshwater, and operates in one of the world’s cleanest environments.
As the industry is geographically dispersed, it has a predominantly regional and rural workforce. In 2003, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported 19 627 people directly involved in the wild catch, aquaculture, and processing sectors. Indirect employment in the commercial sector, and in compliance, transport, storage, wholesaling, and retailing, is considerably higher, and may approach 80 000 people⁵⁹. A more detailed analysis of the industry was included in the Initial Assessment Report, released for public comment in December 2002.
The volume of seafood harvested from the wild is limited by the capacity of fish stocks. Most stocks are fished at their optimum sustainable level and there is little capacity to expand wild catch volume⁶⁰. However, land and sea-based aquaculture is making an increased contribution to the seafood industry. Between 1991-92 and 2001-02, aquaculture produced approximately 24 percent of the total volume of seafood produced in Australia.