Business is good for the seafood industry. Even the previously unpopular "trash fish" are gaining popularity due to the high prices of favorites like cod, flounder, haddock, and halibut.
The recent surge of popularity is largely due to the newly reported health benefits of eating fish. Since 1985, when widely published studies found less heart disease among fish-eating populations, health experts have advised consumers to eat more fish and shellfish. Americans have become enamored of blackened redfish, mesquite-grilled salmon, tuna steaks, and sushi.
In the United States, fish sales rose 20 percent over the past four years, and forecasts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture predict that consumption will double again by the year 2000. In the rest of the world, where seafood is eaten in much greater quantities than in the United States, consumption of seafood products is also rising steadily.
Rising demand, restricted supplies
In fact, business is so good that, for some species, supply cannot keep up with demand. The crimp on the supply side is a saga of politics, economics, and environmental issues.
In the 1960s and 70s, unregulated commercial fishing fleets caused near-depletion of haddock and other ground-feeding fish. Today none of these species are considered endangered, but regulation by the National Marine Fisheries Service continues to limit catches. In any case, experienced fishermen sometimes find that the fish are just not there.
"I talked to very competent fishermen in the last week who had been towing their nets around for three or four hours to catch a couple hundred pounds of fish. Five years ago they would have caught that in fifteen minutes," says Ken Coons, chairman of the federally funded National Fish and Seafood Promotional Council. "Where are they all going? The popular scapegoat is the fisherman [who's accused of] overfishing. That is part of the problem, but only part of it."
According to the National Fisheries Institute, seafood resources are depleted more by environmental causes and biological cycles than by overfishing. Factors like varying water temperature and fluctuating populations of aquatic hunters make fish and shellfish a precarious harvest. "I think we're suffering slow, pervasive effects of pollution that are hard to identify, but are having a profound effect," Coons says. Lax regulation of recreational fishing has also been cited for contributing to shortages of popular species like cod, flounder, haddock, and redfish.
Underutilized fish--an untapped resource
As traditional species become either unavailable or too expensive, or both, restauranteurs and retailers have searched for less expensive replacements, sometimes discovering new taste sensations along the way. Monkfish and mussels are two species that, ten years ago, were considered "under-utilized" by the National Marine Fisheries Service and labeled "trash fish" by fishermen. Marketing divisions within the industry helped to create a public demand for these and other slow starters, including Pollock, catfish, and
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