The Ultimate Sustainable Seafood? - Chow

photo credit NOAA

"At Miya's Sushi in New Haven, Connecticut, Chef Bun Lai serves European flat oysters with Sichuan pepper, lime, soy, and daikon relish; grilled moon snails; batter-fried Asian shore crabs; and raw slices of lionfish with sake-soy sauce, roasted seaweed flakes, toasted sesame seeds, and chives. It might be the only menu of its kind in the country: He calls it the Long Island Sound Invasive Species Menu."

Well if that doesn't give me a reason to visit my hometown...I've been meaning to try lionfish. But I just adore moon snails - I could never.

We've all been hearing a lot about the decline of popular commercial fish species such as tuna, salmon and cod while invasive species such as lionfish and Asian carp explode and cause problems such as feeding off the young of many more vulnerable species. Some believe it would be a great solution to switch and eat the invasive, overpopulated species instead. Hmm...

Lionfish has been gaining popularity recently, as people have been discovering it's actually quite delicious. The set back is those huge beautiful spines that give them their name. Get stuck by one and you'll be feeling it. For this reason fishermen don't typically bring them in to shore.

Another fish to go from pesky pest to delicious dining is the Asian carp. Although it has been found hard to fillet - and as a result is expensive - the fish has been successful when served at restaurants and is already being exported as food to China. America - hang on to some! Cook up some fish!!

There is a concern that in fishing for an invasive species, it too will actually become overfished and eventually endangered.

"It seems impossibly far off to think that the supply of Asian carp could run out, but what if it does and there is still money to be made and stomachs grumbling for it? Would the fish be farmed? And escape? Again? "Then we have the problem all over," Chef Phillip Foss says."

What do you think? Is eating invasive fish species the ultimate sustainable seafood?

Full article here (Chow)

Kill The Lionfish - KillTheLionfish.com

photo credit NOAA

A month or so back I got a request on my Twitter account from someone who really hated lionfish. As a person who actually adores lionfish in all their beauty, I was skeptical that I would like what this person had to say. But curiosity prevailed, and I followed.

Some minorly offensive links at first, about how we should kill every lionfish we see (and eat it, which I guess makes it not as bad), but then I actually clicked, and here's what I found:

For those of you unfamiliar, the lionfish is a beautiful but venomous fish that's recently been butting in on reef habitats worldwide. They've even crept into the waters off my home in New England, though I haven't seen one there personally. They belong in the waters of the Indo-Pacific, but have been introduced in other parts of the world - most likely from careless home aquarists who were ignorant of what they'd just started. Lionfish are a problem because they gobble up juvenile reef fish before they can re-produce and re-stock the environment, putting a huge dent in normal reef fish populations.

So, KillTheLionfish has come up with a solution - "Catch, kill, eat, repeat." Interesting. I can't say that when I've come across one of these fish while snorkeling or diving I've thought to myself “Hey, that looks delicious.” But maybe this isn't such a bad idea...

Head on over to GreenJungle for an article about just this. Described as the "most disastrous marine invasion in history," the scary thing is that no one really knows the full-scale impact of this invasive species yet. They produce many offspring and those offspring are hungry. They're gonna eat whatever they find, and with those huge venomous spikes hanging off of them in every angle, they're not going to be bothered by anyone or anything in the process. That's the problem.

The solution? Dinner. The GreenJungle article has a very good point: "Conservation is most effectively driven by consumers via responsible commercial markets."

"Project Green Jungle is at the forefront with a select few individuals, organizations, and even governments in the commercial collection, preparation, and shipping of this gourmet fish. Commercial Markets in the US and abroad will be directly funding conservation of reefs throughout the Caribbean..."

Even NOAA's jumped onboard! With the catchy tagline "If we can't beat them, let's eat them!"

Honestly this is all very surprising to me, but it makes sense. A delicious overpopulated fish destroying reef habitat worldwide? Why not? Hey, I'll try anything once.

For more information, be sure to follow @KillTheLionfish on Twitter!

Full articles here:
KillTheLionfish.com
What is a Lionfish? (GreenJungle)
What Impact does a Lionfish Have? (GreenJungle) (Cool graphic of the spread of lionfish here)
Filleting the Lion (NOAA)