My coworker just started eating lunch… some type of pungent fish concoction. The horrid odor reminded me that I should post something about the Chilean sea bass, I mean, the toothfish.
The Chileans were the first to market toothfish commercially in the United States, earning it the name Chilean sea bass, although it is really not a bass and it is not always caught in Chilean waters.
jwz posted a link to A Primeval Tide of Toxins, an article about the affect of climate changes and increased pollution on the worlds oceans. Basically the oceans are moving towards once again being ruled by fireweed, jellyfish, and other primordeal creatures. This quote from the article sums it up:
“We’re pushing the oceans back to the dawn of evolution,” Jackson said, “a half-billion years ago when the oceans were ruled by jellyfish and bacteria.”
Here are a few more snippets from the article that I hope will get you to actually read the full article.
When fishermen touched [fireweed], their skin broke out in searing welts. Their lips blistered and peeled. Their eyes burned and swelled shut. Water that splashed from their nets spread the inflammation to their legs and torsos.
The cool thing about fireweed is that it is a Cyanobacteria which means that it produces a class of neurotoxins called, amazingly, Cyanotoxin. The “cyano” part of cyanotoxin should remind you of a thing called Cyanide, which is good at killing you quickly. I don’t envy anyone that runs into fireweed.
The article takes a turn into ecomomics next, pointing out that humanity has been eating everything in the ocean from biggest to smallest and we’re finally getting down to the basics… If Forrest Gump were trying to be a shrimp boat operator today, he’s give up and go after jellyfish. Really.
Or, in a few hours of trawling for jellyfish, he can fill up the hold, be back in port the same day and clear twice as much. The jellyfish are processed at the dock in Darien, Ga., and exported to China and Japan, where spicy jellyfish salad and soup are delicacies.
Chilean sea bass, it always comes back to chilean sea bass.
… people are willing to pay high prices for exotic fare from distant oceans — slimeheads caught off New Zealand and marketed as orange roughy, or Patagonian toothfish, renamed Chilean sea bass. Now, both of those fish are becoming scarce.
Tom Brokah talked about the chilean sea bass lie on the Today Show a while back and it really caught my attention. If you think it’s interesting that we’ll eat something called “Chilean sea bass” but not “Patagonian toothfish” then you should go read Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish