The longtime maxim seafood industry, “Eat More Fish!” is well-established and heralded by health advocacy groups such as the American Heart Association, Harvard’s School of Public Health, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Beyond recommending at least two seafood meals a week, these groups advise that, for reasons of nutrient content, sustainability, and pure simple pleasure, consumers vary the type of seafood they eat.
Joining in on efforts to encourage consumers to diversify the types of seafood they eat, the United Kingdom-based grocery chain Sainsburys has launched a “Switch the Fish” campaign urging people to eat a wider variety of lesser-known fish and seafood species. A report completed by the company stated that 80 percent of fish consumed came from the so-called “Big Five” – shrimp, tuna, cod, salmon, and haddock. Sainsbury’s extensive educational campaign encouraged their shoppers to try alternatives, such as pollock, mackerel, tilapia, hake, and sea bass, in order to protect overfished species and drive demand to species currently found in abundance.
In the United, States, the nonprofit organization Slow Food hosted its inaugural Slow Fish Convention in 2016, bringing together chefs, fishermen, researchers, scientists, and activists, to celebrate the wide variety of seafood caught in American. Attendees were treated to talks from well-known seafood savants and numerous culinary demonstrations.
Two of the best-known advocates for the “eat a greater variety of seafood” message include the authors Michael Pollan and Paul Greenberg. Both suggest that Americans eat more American seafood, a greater variety of it, and include more farmed filter feeders such as oysters and mussels in their diets.
Greenberg goes on to suggest alternative fish species for greater consumption, including Atlantic porgy, Acadian redfish, and Pacific sablefish – representing just a few of the more than 30 wild fish stocks in the U.S. has rebuilt from depletion but largely unknown by U.S. consumers and often exported.
SeafoodSource has culled five of the best recipes, created by famous chefs but crafted for the everyday cook, that feature some of the less utilized fish species that are found in abundance in U.S. waters.
