Already 90% of our big fish are gone - the swordfish, sharks and tuna - devoured by the world's unsustainable and escalating demand for seafood. And it's not just our fish stocks that are in trouble - tens of thousands of threatened species including turtles, sea lions, dolphins and sea birds are caught up in fishing gear each year.

We urgently need your support to tackle overfishing and change the way Australians buy seafood. Our choices matter, and can help restore the balance for our fragile marine life.

Image: Angelsharks, sting rays and puffer fish are just some of the bycatch taken by Southern Australian bottom trawlers. Credit: Marinethemes.com/Kelvin Aitken

Overfishing is one of the single greatest threats to our oceans. There are simply too many boats taking too many fish. Today's industrial fisheries are draining the life from our seas, upsetting the balance on our blue planet and leaving our oceans exhausted.

It is no wonder that leading fisheries scientists have predicted a global fisheries collapse by 2048 - what is now referred to as the 'end of the line' for seafood as we know it.

But the good news is the solution is within our reach. The same science shows it is not too late - we can avert the global fishing crisis if we act now.

Despite often repeated claims that Australian fisheries are some of the most sustainable in the world, this myth has been blown out of the water by a recent study which ranked Australia 31st out of the 53 major fish producing countries in terms of the sustainability of our fisheries.

Most damning, our critically endangered southern bluefin tuna are still being fished to the brink of extinction. Despite years of science showing stocks desperately need a break, Australia still catches more of these iconic ocean species than any other nation on Earth.

Around 400 Australian sea lions are drowned in gill nets each year in the shark fishery off SA.

Through our Sustainable Seafood Campaign, AMCS is fighting to relieve the pressure on tuna and other fish stocks, improve fisheries management around our coastline and help seafood consumers become a force for change.

The sustainable seafood message is making ripples, but we need to make waves.

AMCS's Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide, the first of its kind in Australia, has sparked a consumer revolution in the six years since it was first published. With imported fish like prawns and tinned tuna now making up more than half of the seafood we eat in Australia, we urgently need your support to update and the Guide. Only then can Australian seafood consumers make informed, sustainable choices about imported seafood, as well as that from within our shores.

Click here to donate to our Exhausted Oceans Appeal.

Together we can make sure there are truly plenty more fish in the sea.

Exhausted Oceans: some quick facts

• 80% of the world's fisheries are overfished, depleted or fished right up to their limit.
• Scientists have predicted the world's fisheries could collapse by 2048.
• Each year a staggering 50,000 leatherback and 200,000 loggerhead turtles are caught in the world's longline fisheries. Both species are at risk of extinction.
• Globally 'bycatch' (unwanted or unintended catch) amounts to a hugely wasteful 20 million tonnes a year, or a quarter of the world's annual catch.
• Over 70 million sharks are killed each year for their fins.
• Some of the world's largest fisheries aren't destined for our plates. Each year we feed 14 million tonnes of wild-caught fish to pigs and chickens around the globe. That amounts to 17% of all the wild fish we catch.