Continuing a theme (Fish tale ...):
Many New York sushi restaurants and seafood markets are playing a game of bait and switch, say two high school students turned high-tech sleuths.
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They found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled. A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming. Roe supposedly from flying fish was actually from smelt. Seven of nine samples that were called red snapper were mislabeled, and they turned out to be anything from Atlantic cod to Acadian redfish, an endangered species.
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The results of Ms. Strauss and Ms. Stoeckle’s research are being published in Pacific Fishing magazine, a publication for commercial fishermen. The sample size is too small to serve as an indictment of all New York fishmongers and restaurateurs, but the results are unlikely to be a mere statistical fluke.
Note: "fluke" is also known as flounder.
The numbers sound reasonable to me, but I have no problem with more studies (it sounds like an opportunity).
Do you suppose the Acadian redfish was by-catch that made it's way into the system? If so it would reinforce the failings of managed catches vs. ocean preserves.
Posted by: odograph.com | August 22, 2008 at 10:58 AM
Alaska has spent a great deal of effort increasing the amount of wild salmon harvested each year. Fishing regulation was perhaps the most important issue in the Territory’s push for admission to the union, achieved 50 years ago. It increased the annual number of salmon harvested from ~30 million to ~200+ million, much of that through informed management. However the slime in the business seems to nearly always extend all the way to the consumer:
http://www.wildpacificsalmon.com/site/680079/page/521806
Posted by: WhiteBeard | August 25, 2008 at 09:26 PM