I'll Have The Red Snapper!

Waiter:  How are you folks this evening?
Woman:  How's the fish tonight? Is it fresh?
Waiter:  Oh, yes. Right off the boat.
Woman:  I'll have the tuna, with a vinegarette salad to start.
Waiter:  Very good. And you, sir?
Man:  I'll have the Red Snapper, also with a salad, with ranch.
Waiter:  Coming right up.

Unfortunately, there is an 87% chance that the Red Snapper the man ordered is not Red Snapper. And there is a 59% chance that the type of tuna the woman ordered is not the type listed on the menu.

As humans destroy life in the oceans, some predictable things happen. We've got one of those today, from Oceana Study Reveals Sea Food Fraud Nationwide.

From 2010 to 2012, Oceana conducted one of the largest seafood fraud investigations in the world to date, collecting more than 1,200 seafood samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states to determine if they were honestly labeled.

DNA testing found that one-third (33 percent) of the 1,215 samples analyzed nationwide were mislabeled, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines.

Of the most commonly collected fish types, samples sold as snapper and tuna had the highest mislabeling rates (87 and 59 percent, respectively), with the majority of the samples identified by DNA analysis as something other than what was found on the label. In fact, only seven of the 120 samples of red snapper purchased nationwide were actually red snapper. The other 113 samples were another fish.

Our findings demonstrate that a comprehensive and transparent traceability system — one that tracks fish from boat to plate — must be established at the national level. At the same time, increased inspection and testing of our seafood, specifically for mislabeling, and stronger federal and state enforcement of existing laws combatting fraud are needed to reverse these disturbing trends.

Our government has a responsibility to provide more information about the fish sold in the U.S., as seafood fraud harms not only consumers’ wallets, but also every honest vendor and fisherman cheated in the process—to say nothing of the health of our oceans.

I had the TV on the other day, and overheard a Wendy's commercial which made sure to mention (more than once) that the fish in its sandwiches was "100% North Pacific Cod." It wasn't this commercial, but it was one just like it.

 

That reference to authentic cod fish struck me as so telling that I went on the internet to see if North Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus) is fished responsibly, and indeed it is. Apparently, Pacific Cod is one of the best managed fisheries in U.S. territorial waters. One wishes we could say the same for the beleaguered cod in Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine in the Northwest Atlantic . (I'll have more on that subject in the near future.)

Now, together with this Oceana study, Wendy's insistence that it serves up real, sustainably caught cod fish makes total sense. Well, they didn't say the fishery was well managed. They were more concerned that if you ordered cod fish, you were getting cod fish.

So it has come to this — overfishing the oceans has so depleted the sea of popular eating fishes that suppliers are substituting any fish they can catch for those tasty species and lying about what you're getting. What a piece of work is Man! (etc.).

And this reminds me of Oceana's call for more government oversight to address the mislabeling problem, which I repeat here for you convenience.

Our government has a responsibility to provide more information about the fish sold in the U.S., as seafood fraud harms not only consumers’ wallets, but also every honest vendor and fisherman cheated in the process—to say nothing of the health of our oceans.

To say nothing of the health of our oceans — Ah, there's the rub, for if fish were correctly labeled, "consumers" would soon find out that overfishing is depleting the oceans of the fish they want to eat. Suddenly, Red Snapper would become very expensive and sometimes hard to get. And so on for other popular fish.

In so far as humans are now "fishing down" the oceans, and fishing in previously unexploited areas, we have reached the point where you have to take what you can get. But rather than acknowledge this grim situation, humans prefer to lie about the fish they're catching to keep up appearances.

Nature is not fooled, and neither are we.

 

Comments

[JohnWDB]

What an interesting slogan--"You know it's real". I'd heard it before but never pondered its meaning. With so much fake stuff out there, at least you know what you're getting with us. Wouldn't you rather pay $3.99 for cod than $24.99 for cod that's called "red snapper"? Yes, I think I would.

It seems so long as there is fish of some sort, there will be those who *offer* fish of all sorts, which to me raises the question of why we are fishing for vanishingly scarce snappers and groupers and roughies and mackerels at all. Surely we can more cheaply factory farm some sort of grain-fed white fish, serve it up with a pseudonym, a squirt of I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Béarnaise and a few asparagus spears, and find plenty of takers.