Sunday, June 9, 2013

Catch of the day (night)



EVG Facebook friend Theresa Kimm shared this photo from last night... this fellow caught this (striped bass?) in the East River just south of the Williamsburg Bridge. "He was very happy that people stopped by to look at his prize."

12 comments:

Hey19 said...

Thats a nice Striper, that spot just south of the Wburg bridge seems to produce well.

Anonymous said...

too bad he caught it using dynamite.

Giovanni said...

Don't worry, you'll probably find many East River fish just like this one being served at your local sushi restaurant, according to a study by Oceana, most of the fish you eat isn't what you think it is.

Did you know that in a recent study 100% of the NYC sushi restaurants who had their fish DNA tested were serving fake fish that could in fact have come from the East or Hudson river? Fake fish in sushi is a real problem, Im not saying every restaurant serves fish from the East River, but I'm pretty sure my Dojos soy burger dinner didn't come from the Hudson, where the fish can have very high levels of mercury and PCBs. So the next time you order sushi, ask them which river it came from.

Here are the facts from the Oceana study in Forbes magazine.

In December, non-profit ocean conservation group Oceana had released a report titled “Widespread Seafood Fraud Found in New York City.” Their more extensive study found that 39% of Big Apple restaurants and retail fish sellers committed fraud, as did every single one (100%) of the 16 sushi restaurants tested. Boston and LA fared even worse, with fake fish rates of 48% and 55% respectively.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2013/02/21/fake-fish-on-shelves-and-restaurant-tables-across-usa-new-study-says/

And as those TV ads used to say, sorry Charlie, that tuna is probably not really tuna either:

Between restaurants and grocery stories in the US alike, 59% overall of the tuna tested was definitely not tuna as found by genetic testing.

Sushi restaurants had the worst record, with every single restaurant's 'tuna' tested in major cities like DC, Chicago, Austin, and New York City coming back as fraudulent.

A whopping 84% of 'white tuna' was actually escolar, the snake mackerel fish that causes oily anal leakage and was banned by the FDA until 1992. It is still banned in Japan, Italy, and requires warning labels regarding the leaky discharge in Canada, Sweden, and Denmark.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/16203-59-of-tuna-mislabeled-fake-tuna-linked-to-anal-oil-leakage

Oceana found seafood fraud everywhere it tested, including mislabeling rates of 52 percent in Southern California, 49 percent in Austin and Houston, 48 percent in Boston (including testing by The Boston Globe), 39 percent in New York City, 38 percent in Northern California and South Florida.

Of the most commonly collected types of fish, snapper and tuna had the highest mislabeling rates across the country at 87 and 59 percent, respectively. While 44 percent of all the retail outlets visited sold mislabeled fish, sushi venues had the worst level of mislabeling at 74 percent, followed by other restaurants at 38 percent and then grocery stores at 18 percent.

“Some of the fish substitutions we found are just disturbing,” said Dr. Kimberly Warner, report author and senior scientist at Oceana. “Apart from being cheated, many consumers are being denied the right to choose fish wisely based on health or conservations concerns.”
.
84 percent of the white tuna samples were actually escolar, a species that can cause serious digestive issues for some individuals who eat more than a few ounces.

Fish on the FDA’s “DO NOT EAT” list for sensitive groups such as pregnant women and children because of their high mercury content were sold to customers who had ordered safer fish: tilefish sold as red snapper and halibut in New York City and king mackerel sold as grouper in South Florida.

Cheaper farmed fish were substituted for wild fish: pangasius sold as grouper, sole, and cod, tilapia sold as red snapper and Atlantic farmed salmon sold as wild or king salmon.

Bon appetit!

Mark Hand The Catchman said...

Who's the radioactive one here?:
The guys eyes are glowing red, the fish, nope.

Anonymous said...

Jeez everyone is so negative or trying to appear smart by paraphrasing old pointless articles. Live a little. Have fun and stop being whiney bitches! No one things you're cool cause you can paraphrase or feel better about yourself because you knocked someone else's good times.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 6:40am, Giovanni's post was a service and eye-opener. He wasn't knocking the fisherman or anyone else.

Get off your high horse and grow a few brain cells. Maybe then you'll figure out that the other commenters were just having a bit of fun.

Did you feel proud of yourself for calling the other commenters "whiny bitches"? You're the only one who was whining by the way.

Giovanni said...

If ignorance is bliss then you must be in nirvana Anon 6:40. Fake fish is sushi is as big a problem as GMOs and counterfeit currency, both can get you into real trouble. Did you forget about Jeremy Pivens sushi poisoning that forced him to leave a lead role on Broadway a few years back? Playwright David Mamet was so mad he called Piven a "thermometer." I bet if we stuck that thermometer into you we'd be able to diagnose your condition, which appears to be a severe case of Don't aknow and Don't Care. The cure? Take two mercury laced sushi rolls and call me in the morning.

Anonymous said...

As someone with certain allergies to certain fish, I'm glad for the tip about fish fraud. Anon 6:40? Hope you aren't the next one to find out you have the allergies too. It's no fun.

Hey19 said...

All this is true about sushi restaurants, and has caused me to pretty much only eat fish when I know the guy who caught it.

It also doesnt seem very relevant to this posting.

nygrump said...

I'm pretty sure this striper grew up in the open ocean - it wasn't raised on the east River pollution - I could be wrong...I'd prefer the East River than the Long Island Sound, into which Plum Island pumped all its biological warfare research garbage

Anonymous said...

Hey19, who cares if the article wasn't 100% 'relevant'? It was much appreciated.

Anonymous said...

Good for him! I've been running in that park for a while and I've never seen those guys catch anything.