Monday, November 19, 2007PENSIVE
Bay Area Crabbers Seek to Expand Closed AreaXPENSIVE
This also appears in our Fish Wrap service.
SAN FRANCISCO - Bay Area seafood lovers hoping to put local Dungeness on the Thanksgiving table might be out of luck, and commercial crabbers are hoping to keep it that way.
Lawyers for the crab boat owners associations in San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and Bodega Bay were exploring legal options on Friday to block an executive order by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that closed only a narrow band of ocean waters to crabbing and fishing in the wake of last week's Cosco Busan fuel spill.
San Francisco attorney Michael Duncheon said the commercial crabbers want a ban on all crabbing and fishing below Point Arena in Mendocino County, including the entire Gulf of the Farallones, most of which remains open to the harvesting of Dungeness. His law firm, Hanson Bridgett, is representing the associations.
"We would like the governor and Department of Fish and Game to change their minds and expand the closure," Duncheon said. "The crab fishing water the commercial boats normally fish in should have been closed, because it potentially was affected by the spill."
The injunction, if there is one, would seek to close fishing and crabbing by both commercial and recreational anglers.
Sam Delson, a spokesman for the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, a division of the state Environmental Protection Agency, said testing for the health of Dungeness and other marine life in local waters already is under way, with sampling completed Friday.
The crab were taken from varying depths off Stinson Beach, Bodega Bay and the coastline between San Francisco and San Mateo counties, Delson said.
Results of the toxicology tests should be available by Nov. 28.
For now, hundreds of Bay Area crabbers, whose season opened Thursday, are refusing to set gear, believing the current closure is insufficient to guarantee the health of their catch.
"Anybody that has crabbing gear out there, we want them to bring it in," said Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association. "Once the crab have been tested, and if they test OK, we want a nice orderly opener."
Recreational anglers and some party boats from San Francisco Bay marinas, along with Half Moon Bay and Bodega Bay, have continued to take Dungeness since the sport season opened Nov. 3.
With no local commercial crab coming in, Bay Area wholesalers, processors and seafood buyers are scrambling to meet demand for the signature crustacean of the holidays.
Mike Lucas, president of North Coast Fisheries, a large seafood wholesaler and processor in Santa Rosa with distribution over the entire Bay Area, said he has no live Dungeness available.
Lucas, like other wholesale seafood purchasers in the Bay Area, is looking north to Washington for Dungeness crab, where there is a limited commercial season open to American Indian tribes working the waters between Anacortes and Blaine.
On Thursday, at least six buyers from the Bay Area were said to have shown up there to haggle for crab. Mike Manning, owner of Blaine Crab, which purchases directly from boats at both ports, said only one buyer went home with Dungeness.
Lucas said some 3.5 million pounds of live Dungeness typically move through the Bay Area seafood markets in November, with most of it sold Thanksgiving week.
One wholesale buyer and retail outlet that did have live Dungeness from Washington on Friday was the Alioto-Lazio Fish Co. at the west end of Fisherman's Wharf.
Angel Cincotta, one of the owners, said that out of a shipment Thursday she had maybe 100 crab available after taking orders all week.
Cincotta didn't know when another shipment of Washington crab would come in, but both hoped it would be early next week. – San Francisco Chronicle
Oil Spill Cleanup Delays Showed Flaws in System
This also appears in our Fish Wrap service.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., California has long been recognized for maintaining one of the world's toughest oil spill prevention and response systems. But last week's spill into San Francisco Bay revealed a number of flaws that may have turned a modest incident into a disaster.
The 910-foot container ship Cosco Busan struck a Bay Bridge tower at about 8:27 a.m. Nov. 7. The impact tore open the ship's hull and two fuel tanks, spilling an estimated 58,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the bay.
A week later the true consequences of that moderate spill are still emerging.
As of Thursday, more than 20 Bay Area beaches remained closed, more than 830 birds had died and crab fishing was halted between San Mateo and Point Reyes. On Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a full state investigation.
Experts say the 120 minutes after any oil spill are the most critical. A week later, many involved agreed the first two hours after this incident were misspent.
"It's really clear there was just a fundamental failure of what was supposed to be a world-renowned response system," said Linda Sheehan, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, who also sits on a committee that advises the state Office of Spill Prevention and Response.
A key rupture in the response was that local cleanup crews under contract to the Cosco Busan were not notified about the incident until 50 minutes after the impact, at about 9:17 a.m., according to various accounts.
It took 33 minutes more for the first cleanup boat to reach the scene, said Peter Benz, president of the primary cleanup contractor, Marine Spill Response Corp. That boat carried only two people and no cleanup boom to corral oil, Benz said.
Within two hours of the first alarm, four more MSRC vessels arrived with 3,700 feet of boom. But that was insufficient; the spill was bigger than first reported. The initial report to MSRC put the spill at 420 gallons. It wasn't until 1 p.m. that MSRC learned that the spill was much bigger.
By then there were eight vessels on the water and about a mile-and-a-half of boom. But they were trying to corral a moving target: The Cosco Busan moved twice, trailing oil with it. The tide had turned, ebbing out of the bay at more than 2 knots, spreading oil far and wide.
California's oil-spill response system, like its federal counterpart, was adopted in 1990 in the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, which was 200 times bigger than last week's incident.
The state requires shipping companies and cleanup contractors to submit to unannounced drills and inspections to prove their response capabilities. The state Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) was created to conduct these inspections and police the industry, using a fee charged on each barrel of oil sold in the state.
The federal system relies on the honor system, allowing the industry to prove readiness by submitting its own drill records to the Coast Guard, which doesn't conduct surprise drills.
But both systems give industry a major hand in their own regulation, an approach now being questioned.
The Marine Spill Response Corp. is beholden to a non-profit operated by the oil industry. Its regional vice president also heads the technical committee that advises the state OSPR, where the oil industry has another seat, now held by a representative of British Petroleum.
Oil industry representatives and the owners of the ship did not respond to calls for comment. But MSRC's Benz said the response system is adequate and that the industry must have a role in its operation.
At the federal level, when Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act in 1990, it also gave the oil industry a strong role in cleanup and remediation planning. - Seattle Post Intelligencer
New Iron Chef Calls Cleveland Home
CLEVELAND - It was a swordfish battle to the end.
Michael Symon, one of Cleveland’s premier restaurateurs and chefs, was named the Next Iron Chef in the final round of the Food Network reality series, besting New Orleans chef and restaurant owner John Besh last Sunday night.
For the final test and “Last Battle” on The Next Iron Chef, presented in the Kitchen Stadium at the Food Network, the secret ingredient was swordfish. Each chef had to make five dishes with the swordfish in one hour. It was a race against time to the final moments.
Symon prepared swordfish ravioli. In a second dish, he use the sous vide method to cook marinated swordfish, which he served over lamb’s tongue with wasabi tobiko, soy, and radishes. He also made a crispy swordfish tempura with beets skordalia (a Greek puree of bread and almonds, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil) that were so nicely cooked that they prompted one of the judges, Iron Chef Masahuro Morimoto, to ask Symon, 38, how he did it.
“I did it in the pressure cooker,” says Symon, who also braised lamb’s tongue in the pressure cooker in 45 minutes.
Using both the conventional pressure cooker and the high-tech sous vide methods shows the chef’s range of cooking styles.
“We wanted to show the judges that to be an Iron Chef you have to be versatile,” said Mr. Symon in a phone interview with The Blade. “We wanted to show you can fry, you can braise, you can roast, you could turn it into a mousseline. Things are very versatile. We also wanted to show how you can use every part of the fish — the [swordfish] collar for the braised dish and the belly for the mousseline. Those are ]cuts] that shouldn’t be overlooked ]by chefs].”
Among the dishes that Mr. Besh prepared were a swordfish piccata, breaded swordfish with lemongrass, pureed swordfish with pasta and shallots, and a lobster-wrapped swordfish.
For many observers, the creation of haute cuisine in one hour is mind-boggling. To Symon, it comes naturally. “We’ve been cooking our whole lives,” he said. “You don’t realize how much you have in the vault until you need to. You spontaneously start cooking.”
Shows filmed
The shows were filmed mid-September. “I had to keep [the outcome] quiet,” said Symon who is back in Cleveland at his restaurants, Lola and Lolita. “We’ve already filmed next season.”
The Food Network began airing the six-week series Oct. 7. Eight highly regarded chefs from around the country competed to join the ranks of the legendary Iron Chefs Bobby Flay, Cat Cora, and Mario Batali. In addition to Mr. Symon and Mr. Besh, these included Aaron Sanchez of New York, Morou Outtara of Alexandria, Va., Traci Des Jardins, of San Francisco, Chris Cosentino of San Francisco, Jill Davie of Los Angeles, and Gavin Kaysen of San Diego.
The six episodes took the contestants from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. to Europe.
Judges Michael Ruhlman, a cookbook author; Andrew Knowlton of Bon Appetit magazine, and restaurateur Donatella Arpaia asked the chefs to demonstrate their speed, artistry, flair for simplicity, innovation, resourcefulness, creativity under pressure, and leadership skills.
The first episode featured Artistry, in which Chef Symon prepared a free-form dessert without sugar or butter: it was rice pudding made with goat milk and finished with creme fraiche. A special-ingredient dessert using bacon called the “6 a.m. Special” was vanilla bean French toast topped with bacon ice cream, caramelized apples, and bacon in maple syrup.
Episode two demanded Simplicity (he made lamb tartare) and Innovation (a tomato salad with seafood).
On Oct. 28, the next test of Create Under Pressure, the challenge was to create the ultimate first class meal for passengers flying on the Lufthansa’s Airbus A 380. Chef Symon prepared Slow Roasted Salmon over Creamed Leeks, Curry Crusted Venison with Parsnip Puree with Marinated Carrots and Cilantro, and Tuna Crudo (similar to a carpaccio).
“The airplane was definitely the most challenging,” he said. “You had to cook and then reheat using the oven on the plane. We had an hour and a half to get the food ready and then 15 minutes to reheat it on the plane.”
Episode five on Nov. 4 found the remaining three contestants at the palatial residence of the U.S. Ambassador to France, where they were challenged to create a meal that explains America leading a team of French sous chefs.
Chef Symon prepared lobster hot dogs, veal meatloaf over truffled mashed potatoes, and a goat cheese ice-cream float with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and lemon-lime fizz. As the camera moved among the 20 guests, you see them finishing off the small floats. “In France, they don’t have floats,” said the chef. “At first they couldn’t figure it out [combining ice cream with a beverage].”
The winner started his reign as Iron Chef in a special Thanksgiving-themed episode of Iron Chef America Sunday night. Other episodes air beginning in January.
Meanwhile, his Cleveland restaurants operate as usual. “I tend to travel on my days off,” said Mr. Symon, who is a native of Cleveland. – Toledo Blade
Restaurant Review: Cityfish in Orlando
ORLANDO, Florida - Cityfish, a neighborhood seafood restaurant fashioned after a typical coastal fish shack. Ironically, it may be the most urban concept the company has come up with yet.
The menu is appropriately unambitious but has balance between casual offerings, such as fish and chips and fried Ipswich clams, and more-upscale meals of fresh fish with potatoes and vegetables.
Cityfish's lobster roll crosses the line between the two categories. It is a sandwich, but one with an epicurean ingredient and a $22 price tag. The roll is done in the traditional New England way, the meat prepared as a salad with mayonnaise and served on a toasted white bun. It was a good lobster roll with plenty of sweet meat to fill the roll. It was served with fries and coleslaw, the latter arriving in a flimsy white paper cup.
I also liked the fish and chips ($10), although it must be mentioned that the fries served with many of the entrees are not noteworthy. But in this classic pairing, the cod more than made up for the deficiency of the chips. The two fillets were lightly battered and deep-fried to a crispy brown and served with tartar sauce.
Broiled sea scallops ($13) featured good-sized scallops deftly broiled and served with a vegetable medley, redskin potatoes and hush puppies. If your entree comes with fries, ask your server if you can substitute the veggies, because the ones I sampled were nicely done, firm and fresh-tasting.
I tried two of the fresh fish offerings, a wahoo ($14) and grouper ($18). Both were grilled just right, but the wahoo was a better piece of fish and tasted fresher than the grouper.
The best appetizer I had was the shrimp and bacon poppers ($10). You're probably familiar with the poppers that are deep-fried battered cheese with a pepper inside. These weren't anything like that. Instead, the shrimp were wrapped with a piece of bacon and skewered, then grilled with a barbecue glaze. They were delicious.
Seafood nachos ($12) weren't nearly as frightening as they sounded. A huge stack of tortilla chips was layered with seafood, corn and black bean salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream and pico de gallo. The only problem was that the fish, shrimp and scallops were apparently chopped so finely as to be unidentifiable.
Cityfish also offers fresh oysters, and those I sampled were cool, fresh and expertly shucked. Priced from $2.45 to $3 each, the oysters I tried were bluepoint, Wianno, AmeriPure and Kumamoto.
Desserts were dreadful. A mud pie ($6) seemed little more than a mushy brownie suffocating under whipped cream. Key lime pie ($6) had raspberry sauce drizzled over it rendering it sweet and unlimey.
Service was friendly but tends to follow the restaurant's more casual style. The wine list has several fitting selections, and the by-the-glass list is good.
Liquor is also available, and a long bar dominates one side of the large, open interior dining space. There is also outdoor seating in front of the restaurant and along the side. Walls are painted a steely blue and decorated with black-and-white photos of a certain age, with subjects such as water-skiers and a young boy holding a large fish.
That may not sound urban, but that's my point. The other restaurants have tried to be the sort of place you'd find in New York or Miami. What's wrong with aiming to be a city restaurant that fits the city you're in?
Not a thing. And that's why Cityfish succeeds. – Orlando Sentinel
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Chesapeake blue crab numbers way downXPENSIVE
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Scientists say the blue crab population in Chesapeake Bay was at its second lowest level in 17 years this fall, endangering an important Maryland fishery.
Crabbers and state regulators share the blame with pollution and global warming, scientists told The Washington Post. They said Maryland and Virginia have allowed too many crabs to be taken every year.
The crab population is down to about one-third of its 1993 level.
Blue crabs have survived during decades that have seen the end of sturgeon and shad in the bay, victims of human greed and -- in the case of shad -- dam-building that has hampered annual migrations upriver to spawn. The oyster industry has also collapsed.
Crabs are comparatively tolerant of pollution, and females produce millions of eggs. But the bay now has dead zones that smother crabs.
"Now it appears that even the hardy blue crab is approaching its breaking point," said Howard Ernst, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. – United Press International
Special of the day - fraud
ATLANTA – If you paid top dollar for Grouper in a Georgia restaurant lately, there's a good chance it wasn't what you paid for.
Could we interest you in the special of the day — Grunt?
David Price, a Ph.D. from Florida State University told state lawmakers Friday that he DNA tested Grouper he purchased at 23 Georgia restaurants, and 13 of them — 56 percent— turned out to be another species of fish, either a Grunt, or, more often, a Sutchi, probably imported into the U.S. from Asia.
"Just about any fish you can think of has been substituted for grouper," Price told the Georgia Senate Government Oversight Committee, which is considering tightening regulations on fish sold in restaurants.
Price, who has also tested for bogus Grouper and other fish in Florida for that state's Attorney General's office, declined after the meeting to name the Georgia restaurants. His sampling was not scientific, but random, he said, to show that fish sold in Georgia is poorly regulated and people who think they're buying one fish are often being sold a species that is a lot cheaper.
Price also tested catfish sold at Georgia restaurants. Out of 13 samples, only one wasn't a catfish (it was a Tilapia). He tested two snapper — one of those was a Tilapia, too.
Price said often it's not the restaurant's fault because the restaurant thought it was buying Grouper from the supplier.
"It's a cheap fish masquerading as an expensive fish," he said. "It's not a safety issue, it's an economic issue. The customer has a right to feel they have been defrauded."
Another expert, however, said imported fish may have health issues, too.
Mike Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, testified that fish imported into the U.S. often are contaminated and the FDA has too few inspectors to catch the bad fish.
He said that last year the FDA found fish imported into the U.S. from China and Vietnam had been contaminated by harmful drugs and chemicals illegal for use in food produced in this country. Those including the industrial dyes Malachite Green and Crystal Violet, and the drugs Chloramphenicol, Fluoroquinolone and Nitrofuron.
Neither Doyle or Price has tested fish bought at Georgia restaurants for contaminants.
"I think there is going to be a major increase in food borne contaminates in the future," he said. "We need more inspections and better methods of testing and sampling."
Jeff McCord, a representative for the Catfish Institute, which represents catfish farmers in the country, urged the legislators to pass a law requiring that catfish be identified in restaurants as American grown, or foreign, just as it is when sold in Georgia stores.
"I think the customer would like to know if the catfish is American," he said.
Tommy Irvin, chairman of the Georgia Department of Agriculture, agreed that fish shipped into and sold in Georgia needs to be more closely regulated.
Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) said more regulation is coming.
"We're going to want some legislation, and we're going to create some legislation from this," he said. – Atlanta Journal Constitution
Want to feel good? Eat fish
OTAGO, New Zealand – Want another helping of news on the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids?
A New Zealand study links higher blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acid EPA with better self-reported health.
Those findings come from data on about 2,400 New Zealanders aged 15 and older who gave blood samples and completed a survey on their physical and mental health.
The omega-3 fatty acid EPA was strongly and consistently tied to better self-reported physical health, according to the study.
But the connection between EPA and self-reported mental well-being is "less compelling," write the researchers, who included Francesca Crowe, BSc, of the University of Otago. – WebMD
Today's read: The very hard life of a commercial fisherman
POINT LOOKOUT, N.Y. -- The journey starts at the dock here, on Long Island, about an hour's drive east of Manhattan. And it all comes back to Point Lookout, too.
The worn wooden dock is home to a fleet of three commercial trawlers, plus dozens of scallop and hook-and-line boats that go out into the cold Atlantic Ocean and return with the fruits of the wild, salty waters. The catch goes to seafood dealers near and far -- or, delicately garnished, to the tables of swank New York restaurants.
For Mike Mihale, co-owner of the dock, it means more. He has been fishing here since he could walk, carrying on a tradition going back to his Greek grandfather and going forward to his three young daughters, to whom he's passing on his passion.
”Fish or die” could be the motto of those, like Mihale, who accept the challenges of weather, danger and what they see as over-regulation, to keep the tradition going.
"I'm doing what I was born to do," the 40-year-old Mihale says. "If you told me I couldn't fish, I'd jump off that dock!"
To glimpse the world he inhabits, one corner of the $1 billion a year commercial fishing industry in New York -- and to see how fish goes from sea to table -- an Associated Press reporter spent time in the Atlantic on a Point Lookout trawler, then followed the catch from the ocean to Mihale's dock, where it was loaded onto trucks headed for restaurants and markets. They also met with vendors at the nation's biggest seafood market, in the South Bronx. And in Manhattan, they visited with a chef at a high-end restaurant.
Come aboard, then, and follow the fish.
Capt. Anthony Joseph's rusty steel trawler, the Stirs One, pulls away from Mihale's dock at 10:30 p.m., its smokestack spewing steam as it cuts through the dark waters. The 119-ton Stirs One is headed about 100 miles out into the open ocean for a fishing trip expected to last three days, aiming to return with a catch of 30,000 pounds or more.
As one of Mihale's main suppliers, Joseph, with a crew of up to four deckhands, prowls these waters year round, in rain and shine, brutal winds and cold.
It's not always a bonanza: Sometimes Joseph catches too little even to cover his costs -- about $4,000 each time he goes out, including 25 gallons of diesel fuel per hour, food for the crew, and 10 tons of ice. Fuel costs have risen sharply in recent years, as has the price of a commercial license.
"It's a struggle to make a living, and I have four daughters," says the 43-year-old captain, who's been in commercial fishing for 17 years. "But I love it."
As the mammoth green net dragging off the back of the boat rises from the depths of the sea, he pulls on his rubber boots, lights a cigarette and strides across the slippery deck -- ready for the catch.
And here it is: a torrent of wriggling sea life spills from the bulging net into a container on the deck.
Hands go to work, pitching back overboard thousands of pounds of seafood -- from sand sharks, for which there's little demand, to fish not allowed to be caught by regulations. Seagulls cry with delight, nosediving for effortless meals.
A mound of ocean treasure remains, including monkfish and squid that will end up on Manhattan restaurant plates.
Joseph's 28-year-old trawler has a touch of home: a doorbell he'd bought for his house in Levittown, N.Y. His wife didn't care for the loud, eight-tone ring, so the captain attached the push button to the ceiling of his boat's helm and put the bell below deck in the crew's cabin -- to ring them awake when it's time to pull up the next net, then sort the catch for the conveyor belt and pack it under ice in wax-coated cartons.
There's no such thing as a good night's sleep on an Atlantic fishing boat.
That's made clear the second night out on this trip.
Around midnight, loudspeakers on deck carry Billy Joel's unmistakable voice over the damp, salty air -- "In the middle of the night... We all end in the ocean..." -- but nobody's listening. There's trouble out in the choppy waters: Another trawler has broken down, 10 miles away.
Joseph doesn't hesitate. Under a full moon, he steers the Stirs One toward it.
When the dark hulk, the Sea Rambler, finally appears on the water, Joseph and his crew improvise rigging to tow it. Pulling iron cables across the deck in a noisy jangle, they use a blowtorch to create hooks to grasp and hold the inert vessel.
"Got it?" Joseph yells out to Juri Jeganov, a sailor from Estonia with a craggy, sea-worn face as they wrestle the chains into place.
A cool breeze sweeps in as Stirs One gets under way, a savior to its fellow trawler at a loss of a whole day's catch. This is the ethos of fishermen on high seas: Next time, the favor would be returned, if Stirs One were in trouble.
"This is the last frontier. We're the cowboys at sea," says Keith Stock, a 28-year-old deckhand. He cranks up the rock 'n' roll on the XM satellite radio as the engine revs up, powering the trawler toward Point Lookout.
Joseph is grateful the waters aren't stormy. In his pilot house, one of the DVDs on a shelf is "The Perfect Storm," about a 1991 gale during which six crew members of a fishing boat were lost in the Atlantic off Massachusetts. That same night off New York, Joseph fought 25-foot waves, barely making it back safely.
Commercial fishing is the deadliest job in America, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 140 fishermen die for every 100,000 working.
They hit fast-rising storms that can't be outrun or rogue waves that wash men overboard. On board, fishermen work with power winches and hoists that can catch a limb and drag a man into the ocean, or heavy nets and cages that turn lethal on a slippery deck.
The average pay for taking on such risks is about $40,000 a year for a deckhand, and close to $100,000 for a captain like Joseph.
Joseph is at the helm when Stirs One, with the broken-down Sea Rambler in tow, finally reaches the Point Lookout dock. A lone gull settles on the mast of Stirs One, giving a plaintive cry as the ropes are secured.
The catch stored in the trawler's belly isn't as big as expected, but it's still plentiful and varied: more than 10,000 pounds of fish, plus bushels of porgies and sundry other delicacies like crab and lobsters. The monkfish, along with mackerel, fluke and squid, will go straight to a Manhattan restaurant.
A lineup of trucks drives away the catch -- but only after Mihale takes what's needed for the business he owns with two brothers, Bruce and Rolf Larson: the retail fish market and clam bar by the dock, plus the adjacent Fisherman's Catch restaurant.
The walls of Fisherman's Catch are lined with black-and-white photos of men who have worked at the dock since the 1930s.
In one old image, Mike Mihale's late grandfather, George, stands proudly, a snow-white Greek cap gleaming on his head. As a young man, he sailed the Mediterranean "with just a compass, the wind, the sun and the stars," says his son John, Mike's father -- who at 65 still brings fish to the dock, but with a global positioning system guiding his boat.
The bulk of the Point Lookout catch goes to the New Fulton Fish Market in the South Bronx, America's largest seafood market. As long as two football fields, it moved from the old, outdoor Fulton market about two years ago.
At 3 a.m. on a typical day, Roberto Nunez is wide awake. A regular buyer for top-of-the-line New York restaurants who purchases up to $15,000 worth of wholesale fish per night, he has a hawk's eye for assessing freshness.
"For that, there's nothing like touching a fish," he says.
When stopping to check out some scallops, his hands go to work, feeling the texture -- which should be smooth and firm, "like a baby's bottom" -- then he wrinkles his nose. He moves on to a batch that looks translucent and feels firm, biting into a raw one and smiling. Fresh.
Nunez picks out clams and looks for monkfish liver for specialties made by a Manhattan restaurant called Esca.
After a chat with Patty Duke, a vendor who buys regularly from Joseph, Nunez is walking out of the market to his truck, filled with seafood. It's sunrise, and he's ready to drive into the city.
Commercial fishing and related businesses like this employ more than 20,000 people on Long Island alone.
Mike Mihale remembers when the industry operated on a smaller scale. He'd go out in a boat with his father, pull up 100 pounds of fish with hook and line, "and I'd put it on my little red wagon, walk 10 blocks and sell my catch to Artie."
That's Arthur Hoerning, who fled his job as a Wall Street trader to run a seafood market.
As the industry has evolved, regulation has become more complex, a subject that prompts grousing along the docks. Whatever the quotas are, most commercial fishermen say they obey -- and yet they seethe at the notion that decisions about their livelihood may be made without good information.
"They just keep taking more and more away from us," Mihale complains.
For those who keep fishing in spite of the setbacks, it's a passion -- even if it's just a day trip in Jones Inlet off Point Lookout.
One frigid day, with a stiff wind rattling his 28-foot fiberglass boat, the Icebreaker, Mihale's father, John, and his fishing partner, Brian Caravana, were the only ones out in the gray waters except for a Coast Guard vessel.
Mihale worked with his bare hands, one finger bound with tape covering a cut he got pushing a coded tag into a striped bass. Each fisherman gets a limited number of bass tags -- 221 for John Mihale this season.
The silvery striper was almost extinct by the early 1980s. In 1986, the striped bass fishery was closed for four years, reopening in 1990 with severe restrictions. Its populations are now back to historic highs, a success for regulation. Dozens of police officers are deployed on Long Island by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which enforces federal quotas.
In Mike Mihale's office, where windows look down on the dock, the phone rings. It's his father, calling to say he's coming in with a batch of bass.
The son immediately follows up with another call:
"Davey, I've got somethin' good for you!"
On the line is David Pasternack, one of America's top seafood chefs -- but also a fisherman who often joins his friend Mihale on the water.
Pasternack presides over the stoves of Esca, meaning "bait" in Italian. The draw is "crudo" -- a kind of Italian sushi made from raw ("crudo") seafood, livened up with simple ingredients like lemon, olive oil, pepper and salt.
The key, he says, is freshness -- nothing more than a day out of the ocean.
The bass, $3.50 a pound wholesale, ended up as a $27 Esca entree, "Roasted local wild striped bass with hubbard squash, caramelized apple and wild mushrooms."
The monkfish the Stirs One caught 50 miles out in the Atlantic, and sold wholesale for $3 a pound, became a $32 Esca entree with roasted beets, fiddlehead ferns and sorrel mushrooms.
As for mackerel, one of the cheapest of seafood, Pasternack has been known to serve it raw, slicing it very thin and pouring hot oil and fresh ginger on it. And that's the art of a master chef, turning into a meal what comes from the ocean that very morning.
"It's a passion: It's knowing when something needs a little something," the chef says.
The indispensible "something" starts along the docks, with the fishermen.
Billy Joel, himself a Long Islander who says he chucked clams as a kid and once was arrested during a protest over fishing limits, reflects in his song "Downeaster Alexa" on the fiercely independent breed who "go where the ocean is deep. ...
"They say these waters aren't what they used to be,
"But I've got people back on land who count on me." -- Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Business Toolbox: Your customers’ health
Seafood said to combat juvenile diabetesXPENSIVE
MIAMI, FLORIDA – Juvenile diabetes is a growing epidemic in today’s world. The latest statistics show that one out of every 400 to 600 children and adolescents are currently living with this disease. But it seems that hope has arrived from an unexpected source.
New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association is showing that feeding children who have a family history of Diabetes a diet rich in fish containing Omega-3 fatty acids could possibly cut their risk of developing the disease by as much as 55 percent. The groundbreaking study is the first of its kind.
Juvenile, or Type 1, Diabetes is a disease that usually presents its self in childhood. Children who are at risk for this disease should increase their intake of Omega-3 fatty acids, like those found in salmon. – Salmon of the Americas Press release
Business Toolbox: Environment
Fish farming killing tropical mangroves
JAKARTA – Efforts to revitalize Jakarta's dwindling mangrove forests in Muara Angke have been hampered by local fishermen farming shrimp and fishing in the designated conservation area, a ranger from the Forestry Ministry told The Jakarta Post.
Angke Kapuk mangrove reserve ranger Resijati Wasito said fish farmers had cleared approximately 80 percent of the 100 hectare wetlands.
The reforestation program has been hindered by fishermen rearing milk fish and shrimp and removing mangrove trees and their roots, he said.
"It's hard to deal with the illegal fishermen. We've asked them to leave, because this conservation area belongs to the Forestry Ministry, but they keep returning.
"They damaged seedlings we planted, and even threatened us with machetes to try to stop us planting more trees," Resijati said.
The reserve has changed substantially with the fish farming. Where once stood a shady forest of mangrove trees, now there are only milk fish ponds.
In 2002 the Forestry Ministry and the reserve developer, PT Murindra Karya Lestari, planted some 50,000 mangrove seedlings, but most of them were uprooted by fishermen, leaving only around 100, Resijati said.
Since 2004 some 14,000 mangrove seedlings have been planted with better supervision. Around 10,000 can now be seen near the ponds.
Resijati said left undisturbed it would take seedlings nearly 10 years to grow into a forest. -- The Jakarta Post
Business Toolbox: Expanding markets
Canadians look to tropics to sell fish
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei -- A month-long Canadian seafood promotion was launched at the Sheraton Utama Hotel by the guest of honour, Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Hamid bin Haji Jaafar, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources.
The seafood promotion will be available at Deals, Sheraton's signature restaurant.
The High Commissioner of Canada to Brunei Darussalam, Mr. Leopold Battel said that the three components of Canada's seafood industry -- wild fishery, aquaculture and seafood processing -- remain vital to British Columbia, the Atlantic Provinces and to Canada as a whole.
Canadian seafood is exported to all over the world and the volume of these exports puts the country among the world's top five producers. Of the economically important species, lobster comprises 25 per cent of Canadian exports, crab 15 per cent, shrimp 11 per cent and salmon 12 per cent, with the balance in other assorted species. Wild capture accounts for 76 per cent of total production and the remainder come from aquaculture, Mr Battel said.
The Canadian Seafood promotion is supported and sponsored by the Canadian High Commission, Agriculture and Agri food Canada, TGT Sdn Bhd and Sheraton Utama Hotel. -- Borneo Bulletin
In the next issue of Wild Catch magazine, we have an article about selling seafood certified as halal, the dietary code of Muslims. Let us know if you’re not receiving the magazine. It’s free.
Business Toolbox: Conserving your supply
Fishing fleet dumping fish back into ocean
LONDON – The UK fishing industry is warning it faces ruin because of EU quotas which result in thousands of tonnes of dead fish being dumped back into the sea.
It says fishing crews often continue catching large amounts of fish such as cod by accident after exceeding quotas - and have no option but to dump them.
Ministers are pushing for a quota increase to help solve the problem.
But environmentalists have called for a change in practices, such as avoiding areas with large numbers of white fish.
European Union quotas strictly limit the amount of fish that vessels can bring back to port, but there is no restriction on the amount of fish they actually catch.
As a result, boats fishing in the "mixed fishery" of the North Sea often catch a species or size of fish which is above their quota and have to throw the "discard" back.
The EU estimates that between 40% and 60% of fish caught by trawlers in this area is dumped back into the sea.
Trawler skipper Phil Walsh told BBC News he had landed all of the cod he was allowed by June this year.
Since then, he has been fishing for prawns and dumping prime whiting, haddock and cod, which would fetch as much as £13.50/kg on a supermarket shelf.
"I can't describe the feeling really," he said.
"It's your livelihood and you spend your life trying to catch it and then you have to throw it back over the side.”
But environmentalists, who have for years been sounding the alarm bell over the decline of North Sea fish stocks, say now is not the time to increase the amount being caught. – BBC
In the next issue of Wild Catch magazine, we have an article describing how U.S. fleets have met the challenge of “bycatch.” Let us know if you want to received the magazine.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Dungeness lovers may be out of luck
SAN FRANCISCO – Fans of Dungeness crab should expect a financial pinch if they want to dine on this seafood favorite this winter.
The Nov. 7 oil spill in the San Francisco Bay will make crab more expensive, say restaurant chefs and managers who serve Dungeness during crab season, which begins next month.
"If I had to put crab cakes on my menu, I couldn't do it for less than $20," said John Surla, executive chef at Galletto Ristorante in Modesto. "You're talking about an appetizer that's normally $9 or $10."
A cargo ship headed for South Korea ran into a Bay Bridge tower, spilling 58,000 gallons of oil into the bay. The spill polluted beaches across the bay and a few outside the Golden Gate. -- Modesto Bee
Bluefin tuna nearly gone from Mediterranean
LONDON – Unless urgent action is taken, Atlantic bluefin tuna will soon disappear from the Mediterranean and our plates warns environmental group, WWF.
The conservation organisation, which for years has been sounding the alarm bell over the dramatic decline of fish stocks in the North Sea, predicts the imminent collapse of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean sea following overfishing.
It has called on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) -- the inter-governmental fishery organisation responsible for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas -- to introduce a moratorium on commercial bluefin tuna fishing in the region following scientific evidence that collapse is "probable".
But despite evidence of fishing activity during the spawning season and laundering of catch, a meeting in Antalya, Turkey last week, ICCAT failed to adopt any compulsory measures to protect the Mediterranean bluefin tuna. Instead, it hopes to introduce a 'catch documentation' scheme to trace the fish from vessel to market, which WWF believes is too little too late.
Sergi Tudela, head of fisheries at WWF Mediterranean, accused ICCAT of having "failed in its duty to sustainably manage our common marine resources".
"The message from ICCAT's own scientists is loud and clear – this fishery is running headlong towards collapse," he said. "Yet even in this most critical of situations, ICCAT has failed to find an appropriate solution."
ICCAT proposed that companies involved in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna business could attend a meeting in Tokyo, to brainstorm on the management of the fish.
WWF is urging people to avoid eating Atlantic bluefin tuna from the Mediterranean – unless it is caught using sustainable methods such as the traditional tuna traps of Andalusia in Spain -- until ICCAT has agreed a satisfactory recovery plan. Tinned tuna is almost always yellowfin or skipjack. – The Guardian, UK
Kids who eat fish lessen chance of asthma
NEW YORK -- Children who eat their fish and green beans may be less likely to develop allergies or asthma, according to new research.
In a study of 460 Spanish children who had been followed from birth to age six, scientists found that allergies were less common in youngsters who ate the most fish, and vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants and green beans were associated with a lower risk of asthma.
Dr. Leda Chatzi, of the University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece who conducted the study, said the findings suggest parents should be sure to include these foods in their children's diets.
The study, published in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, included 460 children whose parents were interviewed periodically over the first 6.5 years of the child's life.
Parents answered questions on a range of factors that affect a child's allergy risk -- including the mother's diet during pregnancy, breast-feeding, exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke and family history of allergies and asthma.
Even with these factors considered, the children's diets were strongly related to their risks of allergies and asthma. Children who ate the most fish were 57 per cent less likely to develop allergies than their peers who ate the least amount.– Reuters
Expert says Canadian snow crab industry must change
A new report on New Brunswick's snow crab fishery says the industry needs to modernize if it's going to remain lucrative and achieve greater stability.
Consultant Gilles Theriault describes the fishery as being in a "very precarious state" and says bickering between fishermen, processors and plant workers is holding the industry back.
New Brunswick fishermen catch almost $70 million in snow crab during the spring and summer season in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence.
But the report blasts working conditions in fish plants and says all plant workers should earn a minimum of $12 an hour.
There are 22 fish processing plants in the province, but only 12 operated in the last year, says the report.
Closing the old plants through a government buyout could allow modernization of the remainder so they could operate year-round for other species, the report states. A smaller number of processing operations should be licensed, the report says, with the focus on ones that can operate at least 25 weeks per year.
To ensure steady work for the industry, Theriault's report suggests that crab boats be limited to two landings per week and a weight quota. The base price for crab should also be set at the beginning of the season, he writes.
Theriault urges processors to form an industry association to propose a system to divide half the crab quota among themselves, while they would bid for the other half of the quota through an online auction system.
New Brunswick's Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet said he is confident there's a way to make the province's snow crab fishery a success.
Doucet will be meeting with members of the province's fisheries roundtable to decide which of the 30 recommendations from Theriault's report should be adopted.
Currently processors don't know how much crab will come in, plant workers don't know how much work they'll get and fishermen don't know what price they'll get for their catch, Doucet said.
Many of the workers are just attempting to get the six to 12 weeks of work they need a year to qualify for employment insurance, he said.
"You know that's not right," Doucet said. "I think this industry is worth more than that. We're doing an injustice here."
The workers make about $4,000 to $6,000 in wages annually, working as long as 100 hours per week early in the season, but as little as 20 hours later. – CBC
|
|
|
