Sometimes known as orange roughy, deep sea perch is recognisable as pale reddish-orange in colour with large eyes and a bony head. Fished commercially, deep sea perch is found all over the world. In Australia, they live mostly in the waters of south eastern and South Australia. Evidence shows that due to severe overfishing in Australia for the last 30 years, this species is prone to commercial extinction due to deep water trawling methods. Deep sea perch is a slow growing, slow moving demersal fish, which as the name suggests, feeds and lives near the bottom of the sea. They have a long life span and don’t start to breed until they are over 25 years old.
This fish is at the high end of the price list, sometimes selling for up to $35 per kilo, and it’s also on top of the list of unsustainable fish.