Global seafood consumption has increased over the past six decades, currently providing ~20% of the world’s per capita protein intake. Australia faces a striking paradox in the global seafood scenario: while having one of the world’s largest fishing zones and a thriving aquaculture sector, the country only contributes to 0.14% of the global seafood production and heavily relies on seafood imports. We reviewed Australia’s seafood production to better understand why seafood consumption has shifted towards international imports, and to discuss the environmental and socioeconomic impacts this outsourcing place on other nations. Although no single reason explains Australia’s low seafood production, some important factors can be highlighted, such as low net primary productivity, high operational costs of fisheries and aquaculture, high recreational catches of co-fished species, and regulatory constraints. Market demand and preferences also play a key role in shaping Australian seafood consumption. Notably, lower-cost seafood is primarily sourced overseas, and may reflect broader patterns of inequality in resource use, environmental impacts, and social consequences. Thus, although not directly responsible, Australia does inadvertently support socioeconomic inequities in fisheries and aquaculture value chains and contributes to geographic inequities in seafood production, where productive regions bear the burden of global demand while biodiversity hotspots are preserved. We acknowledge that reducing the displaced environmental and socioeconomic costs of seafood imports is an incredibly complex and multifaceted issue, yet Australia's reputation as one of the world's leaders in fisheries and aquaculture management carries with it the responsibility to ensure that all seafood entering the country adheres to similar principles and standards.