2024-02-15 00:00:00
Is everything good in fish?
Mercury levels, presence of microplastics, damage linked to overfishing… It’s not always easy to know if it is good to continue to eat fish. For the Superior Health Council, the general recommendation for the adult population remains to eat fish, seafood and shellfish once or twice a week, including fatty fish at least once. “Fish and seafood are valuable sources of essential nutrients, such as protein, polyunsaturated fatty acids, iodine, selenium and vitamin D,” we can read on the website www.health.belgium. be. “Their regular consumption has a positive impact on health and is not at risk, regarding exposure to mercury.” However, it is advisable to vary the origins and types of fish from one week to the next. On the other hand, with regard to children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, it is better to limit tuna and avoid swordfish, but favor mackerel, sardines, salmon, herring, halibut, mussels, trout and cod.
Very expensive tuna
114.2 million Japanese yen, or more than €719,000, is the price of a bluefin tuna sold at Tokyo’s largest fish market at the beginning of January. This is the fourth highest price since data recording began in 1999 and the most expensive since the coronavirus pandemic and the end of restrictions for restaurants. The tuna auction at the Toyosu fish market at the start of the new trading year is a Japanese tradition. This valuable bluefin tuna weighed 238 kg and was sold to a seafood wholesaler and a chain of sushi restaurants. For the fourth year in a row, this team won the tender for the most expensive tuna offered for sale. The fish was served at a Michelin-starred sushi restaurant in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza district.
Fewer soles
A must-have on restaurant menus, sole, one of the Belgians’ favorite fish, risks becoming rarer on the stalls. Indeed, according to a decision by the Member States of the European Union, Belgian fishermen are authorized to harvest 60% fewer soles in the North Sea in 2024 compared to last year. In return, they are allowed to catch more plaice, rays and cod. For rays, for example, the increase is 81% in the North Sea. While sole is an important source of income for Belgian fishing, this decision upsets the shipowners’ federation. “In most fishing zones, these limits are in total contradiction with what we, fishermen, observe at sea,” complained its president. Quotas are set on the basis of scientific advice based on fish stocks, but two years are required to put this data into practice.
Unique in the world
Did you know ? Since 2013, shrimp fishing on horseback practiced in Oostduinkerke has been listed as UNESCO intangible heritage. In the small seaside resort (in the town of Koksijde), “twice a week, except in winter, Brabant draft horses sink up to their chests in the water and advance parallel to the coast, pulling nets in the shape of a funnel that two wooden planks hold open,” explains the UNESCO website. “A chain scrapes the sand to create vibrations that make the shrimp jump in the net. The fishermen then pour their catch into the baskets attached to the horse’s flanks. This astonishing practice requires good knowledge of the sea, a suitable strip of sand and great confidence in the horse. This tradition plays a central role in local social and cultural events, such as the Shrimp Festival.
Star of Peruvian cuisine
If the Japanese, among others, love raw fish, they are not the only ones. In Peru, ceviche is a real institution. Since last December, this recipe based on marinated raw fish has been included in UNESCO’s intangible heritage, in the same way as couscous, Neapolitan pizza or Korean kimchi. This dish, which can vary from region to region depending on the types of fish used, was first eaten more than two thousand years ago in the regions that make up what is now Peru, according to local anthropologists. . At the center of Peruvian gastronomy, it is prepared on the coast with species from the Pacific Ocean, in the mountains with trout from rivers and lakes, and in the tropical forest with paiche or tilapia raised in lagoons. .
This article appeared in Le Télépro on 1/2/2024
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