Black Sea Bass - Centropristis Striatus. Slow growing ocean fish, adult weight up to 500 lbs. Illegal to catch for sport in California.
Fish is a terrific source of protein for growing, muscular bodies. It comes in a wide variety of flavors as well as a choice of lowfat or high-fat (omega-3) species. The problem addressed in this topic is that many consumers are easily misled by any of several disingenuous myths of seafood marketing.
The most insulting is the term "wild caught". This is often used as a marketing term to increase sales instead of being an informative term. Wild caught fish are supposedly more nutritious than their farm-raised brethren. What many consumers don't realize is that only a few types of fish are even capable of being farm raised. The list is quite short: some salmon and other salmonids like trout, some types of bass, catfish, tilapia, and some carp. Quite a few fish that have been marketed as "wild caught" are actually impossible to farm-raise! The term "wild caught" is redundant for these fish at best, deliberately misleading at worst. A prime example of this are the blue water fish like the tunas, swordfish, marlin, etc. The Monterey Bay Aquarium tried for many years without success to keep tuna alive before prevailing with their million-gallon Outer BayTank, at an expense that no commercial farming enterprise could ever justify. So anytime you see the term "wild caught tuna" at your local fish market, know that someone is trying to pull a fast one on you. All tuna is wild caught.
"Whitefish" is another term that drives ichthyologists crazy. There's no such thing. Or there is but it seems to be different in every part of the country, every part of the world. Vague or outright mislabeling of fish by using a common name is epidemic in the fishing industry. In some locations whitefish is a local freshwater fish, in other locations it is one of any number of saltwater fish. "Yellowtail" means two or more completely different fish, depending on which coast. "Yellowtail Tuna"? There is no such thing, although fish has been labeled as such in markets. It's probably either Yellowfin Tuna or California Yellowtail which is a member of the Jack family of fishes. Yellowtail in Florida is a member of the snapper family, no family relation to either Charlie the Tunas nor to the Jacks. "Cod", what the hell could that be? Is it Atlantic Cod? Alaskan Cod? True Cod? Ling Cod, Rock Cod? Cow Cod? "Chilean sea bass" is otherwise known as Patagonian Toothfish, a very slow growing wild-caught fish that is under great pressure from the fishing industry. It's not a seabass at all.
Black Bass - Micropterus salmoides. Fast growing member of the freshwater sunfish family, adult weight to 20 lbs. Target of a multi-billion dollar sport fishing industry. Tastes a bit like Black Sea Bass.
Then there's the problem of brazen, illegal mislabeling. Disreputable merchants will sometimes take a cheaper fish and mislabel it as a more expensive fish. Pollack is sometimes sold as scallops or cod or crab. Monkfish has been known to be used as lobster in stews and such. Rockfish is a generic term for any of dozens of species of related fish and is often sold as "Snapper" or "Red Snapper". "Sea Bass" in a dishonest restaurant could mean almost anything. "Dark Meat Tuna" is the cheap skipjack tuna, period. It is not the much more expensive yellowfin or bluefin tuna as some would like you to believe.
The moral of the story is that it pays to know your fish or have a trusted fish monger who does.
The next article in our fish series will be "The Ironic Fish: Legally Poaching Your Fish and Boning a Boneless Trout." Until then, Tight Lines!
