Word Play and Species Substitution

APR17
20122 COMMENTS AND 0 REACTIONSWRITTEN BY JOHN CALYPSO

In the Mexican Spanish language tuna is atún (ah-tune) and the Spanish word tuna refers to prickly pear cactus. It takes a bit to catch yourself from thinking chicken of the sea when you hear the word tuna south of the Rio Bravo. You ask to hear a tune and someone may pass you a can of tuna.

Confused yet?

Apparently all that word play is far less confusing than buying or ordering tuna and other species of fish in Los Angeles and other parts of the United States.

In an article in today’s L.A. Times, “Seafood in L.A. frequently mislabeled, group says”, we learn that the nonprofit group Oceana is reporting they found in DNA tests of seafood from 74 retail outlets in Los Angeles that “Red snapper, Dover sole, white tuna and other fish were often different species. In all, 55% of 119 fish samples from across L.A. were misidentified”.

Be still my heart. We now know that we are being sold and served counterfeit fish in Los Angeles, and most likely similar crimes are occurring in other places. “Consumer Reports found that 18% of seafood samples its researchers collected from retail stores and restaurants on the East Coast last year was mislabeled. A 2011 investigation by the Boston Globe reported that 48% of the fish it collected from Boston restaurants, grocery stores and seafood markets was sold with the wrong species name.”

What is up with people!

Here in our Mexico, and we say this with all due respect, the hombres selling fish off the boats simply do not have the deceptive marketing expertise to pull this off – and thank goodness for their lack of sales and marketing skills. Apparently Sushi restaurants had the highest incidence of mislabeling.

“In [some] L.A. samples, red snapper was misidentified 100% of the time, DNA tests showed. Tilapia and pollock were popular substitutes, the report said. Dover sole was discovered to be Asian “sutchi catfish” or common sole, and white tuna was often actually escolar, a snake mackerel with known diarrheal effects. The fish has been restricted in some countries.” Yum!

If we were living in the United States we think we would move on from being pescatarians to full-fledged vegetarians – muy rapido!

Here in Puerto Escondido there is a friendly hombre that comes to our casa door selling fresh fish out of a cooler. We recently bought a kilo of tuna steak fillets for 80 pesos ($2.85 U.S. a pound) – photo below:

The REAL Deal -Tuna or Atún

At the conclusion of the L.A. Times article they write, “Lisa Simon, 66, a self-described pescatarian in Eagle Rock, eats fish two or three times a week. She said Oceana’s findings make her angry.

‘It’s sort of like that pink slime stuff they put in ground beef and nobody knew about it. If halibut isn’t really halibut, God knows what it is or where it comes from,’ she said. Simon said the report is likely to inspire her to eat more vegetables, beans and rice.”

Pink slime (we wrote about it here), snake mackerel and God knows what is being foisted off on the public by some very uncaring people we think. This makes us mad as hell. When will societies start demanding better character from its members? Stay Tuned!