Piscatorially Portentious?

Sad, but true, went shopping at local supermarket for a few essentials on New Years Day.

As we have got older we have tried to pay attention to what we eat, but closer examination of the boxes in which the frozen "fish" came was an eye opener.

Without naming names, the UK has some of the worlds largest frozen fish companies, one or two of which are still based in what were historically very busy fishing ports.

First off, boxes simply labelled fish in batter etc turned out to contain Alaskan Pollack.

Then there were the expensive "bistro" recipe frozen fishies, close examination of the box showed that these were made in the UK, oh that's all right then. Well, no, as reading the next part of the description showed it to be processed from Vietnamese farmed fish, at it carries a premium price to go with the prettier boxes.

So, still at this stage trying to find something that remotely resembles something caught by a UK registered fishing vessel, landed in a UK port and processed in a UK facility I continued my search and found fish caught in the North Atlantic that were apparently battered cod, haddock etc.

I then noticed that the ingredients etc. stated in usual minuscule print showed that only 54% of what was actually being sold was something called fish! and the rest, some 46%, was anything but fish.
This applied equally to any Alaskan I.e. Pacific (Fukushima risk) fish as to Atlantic caught fish.

Now my maths says that we are therefore paying for something that we are only getting approx. half of what it would appear to be, although no doubt any Pacific Piscatorial Pollution will remain free of charge!

So, what is the purpose of this thread? Well, as consumers we sure as heck are not buying what we think we are buying and we may, as time progresses, be getting a little bit extra, free!
And who is responsible for 54% fish content to be allowed to be called fish?

reply to post by Shuftystick


Instead of reading the labels, just turn off the lights and see if the fillets glow. If they do, you know they came from the pacific. If you can fry fish or shrimp without using oil, you know it came from the Gulf.

I love fish, but I'm only picky about the species, not the location. I figure all water is contaminated with something we shouldn't have in it, IE oil, radiation, mercury, other waste. Actually our whole lives are contaminated. The best we can do is try to enjoy the moments we have and hope that with time and perseverance things will get better.

Don't hold your breath, though.

reply to post by WeRpeons


I like your logic, but according to some on ATS, the radiation could come from natural sources like the oceans or granite.

But hey, let's not be shellfish or crabby bout this whole thing it's nuf fin to worry about...

I like Alaskan Pollack, it isn't bad. I don't mind the Chinese pollack in the fish potato soup occasionally. Pollack is a type of cod, but it can be freshwater so it may have less iodine in it. Sadly most of the Pollack around here is from China....but it is cheap and marked as from China.

I like Salt Codfish from Canada, it is better than the Italian stuff. It comes in a little wood box. It is very nutritious and can boost your energy if you eat a little piece. The bioavailability of the minerals must be good when it is salted and dried. As long as you do not wash off the salts.

I try to buy locally caught fish, it is fresher. I also buy Alaskan wild caught canned salmon to eat occasionally, it seems like it also makes me feel better to eat this canned fish. I give the best part to the cats, the juice, they need it though, it makes their fur shine.

I can't see the high prices we pay for fish, the fishermen do not get that much money for their product. It seems that the middle man makes the money, not the one who does the work.

I think a lot of the fish sold may not be what it is said or implied to be. They can sell pollack as cod since it is a part of the cod family.

reply to post by rickymouse

My family has been involved with fish for over 70 yrs with numerous fish and chip shops that used to sell the type of fish that came chilled, packed in boxes at the quayside in Grimsby having been landed in the very early hours and travelled south by train to a fish distributor. The ice would still be around the fish even though it was packed in thin wooden slat boxes with no insulation. Fresh, well as near as possible, it had not come from around Iceland but closer to home as in those days the fish stocks were relatively strong.
We used to sell mainly Cod, not pollack, that was deemed a cheap fish in those days, plus hake and whiting.
I can remember during the 70's when ports such as Hull, Grimsby, Gt Yarmouth & Lowestoft still had fishing boats landing their catches but the boats were changing and the Scots fleets quickly adopted the more commercial methods from their Scandinavian cousins and along came the huge purse seine nets with the "vacuum cleaner" suction device that meant you could leave the net in the water to empty it.
Fish stocks plummet term quotas and by-catch throwaway all combined and the rest is history as far as North Sea stocks went.
It seems we never I learn and the average scientist is not a fisherman, and the average EU beaurocrat would not even make decent chum if chopped up...but now the EU and others send huge factory ships to plunder the African Coasts to what eventual cost? Well we know the answer to that one.
Maybe the oceans will be devoid of fish before the fish poison us?

reply to post by Shuftystick


I grew up eating all sorts of fish. I liked whitefish, rainbow trout, northern pike, perch, speckled trout, smelt, bass, crappy, and bluegills. Of those, the lake perch, crappy, and fresh caught native speckies were my favorites.

Then comes all the hype about the good properties of Salmon. Salmon fresh caught and served in Juneau is great but the stuff from cool water like here in MI. is not nearly as good. The stuff shipped from Alaska is not that good either, I would rather have my fish fresher. They are trying to convince people that Salmon is a great fish...it is not in my eyes that good. They can farm Salmon, that is the reason they are promoting it, it is a sustainable fish. If everyone started eating whitefish, they would be gone in a short period. Same with Rainbows and other fish.

I was surprised that Lobster gained so much acceptability from marketing. Nobody even ate it until a few hundred years ago. It was a sea bug that they started feeding prisoners in California and promoted it to a status of elite delicacy. Sure the rubbery lobster does have health benefits but it also has some bad properties if overeaten. They are often high in bromides, they live on the bottom of the sea. If you want something to settle you, eat lobster and oysters. If you want to work hard and accomplish things, don't eat them. A lobster reminds me of a bull head. The meat tastes similar but lobsters don't have bones. I prefer a good sweet meat fish over anything else. I have tasted smoked sturgeon Now that is a treat. I wouldn't want to eat it all the time or it would no longer be a rare treat. We need to keep some things as a treat, the sturgeon was almost made extinct because it was overfished. I am glad that did not happen, they are an awesome fish. A little piece every ten years or so is just right.

We have made a mess of the seas. We waste way too much fish. The chinese are good at not wasting fish, they have a broth made from the stewed bones of fish for sale all over the place in the mornings I hear. I like Kala Mojaka. So does my daughter. It is a cheap and nutritious meal. I make it with potatoes, onions, a clove of garlic, four drops of Tabasco sauce, and a little shredded cabbage. A pat of butter half way through is added. Salt and pepper to taste. I understand food chemistry, I modified my grandfathers recipe to preserve the NAC. My daughter says it almost has a medicinal taste like homemade chicken soup.

Homemade soup/broth, long been a panacea for many ailments.

Back to fish though.

Part of my background hails from Bilbao in the Basque region of Spain, these were those that came here and opened the fish and chip shops after fleeing Spain when Franco started his butchery business.
One of their favourites is Salt Cod or Bacalhau cooked similarly to the Canadian method no doubt.

WRT salmon, I would no more eat, knowingly, farmed salmon than I would any of the other farmed fish species or shellfish. I try very hard to source diver caught scallops and am an ardent supporter of sustained fishing methods and have supported efforts by Greenpeace, WDC, Sailors For The Sea and one or two other environmentally concerned organisations.

I really have a taste for Swai fish. Just make sure you know where it came from. It can be farmed and farmed responsibly (no hormones or overused antibiotics) which is why you make sure you can find the farm sourced on it. The meat has a nice, clean taste that goes well with herbs when sautéed in a pan with a little butter. It also has the advantage of being economical because it can be aquacultured.

I'd skip the boxed, frozen battered stuff and head to the fish counter, myself.

reply to post by ketsuko


Firstly, apologies for not responding to your post before now.

Swai Fish, will try and source it but unlikely to find it locally in Wales. However as the only Swai likely to be found in the UK will probably be cultivated or farmed I may just pass on it anyway, as I don't knowingly eat farmed fish or farmed fish products, difficult to attain.

With regard to fresh fish, that is not so easy to find, I live in a city and it's only real market no longer has a fishmonger and even butchers are closing up there. There is another market in an adjacent city that has a large fishmonger but that means a 32 mile round trip and parking totalling about £14 to add to what will be an expensive item.

One of the main supermarkets has a good reputation locally though for the quality of its fish, and where it is non farmed I will buy if passing and remembering as I don't shop there as a rule.

May have to start battering fresh fish, used to make the batter by hand in a large pail as a kid for the family chip shop and had to remember to change hands at 99 or risk a bad form of crankers wamp!

Anyway, enjoy the Piscatorial protein whatever your poison, be it NBRC or otherwise pre cooked and glowing.