Friday, December 14, 2007

Lumpfish caviar, the sublime ugly

Would you buy caviar from this fish? Here's someone who will sell you lumpfish caviar? When the high end caviar gets scarce, who knows where we'll have to go for more.



Maybe it's time to bring back one of our heroes...today lumpfish caviar, tomorrow blobfish caviar?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those looking for "enviro-friendly" caviar alternatives may want to think twice about lumpfish. Management information for this species is poor and stock status is not well-known, but there are indications of over-fishing and depletion. Furthermore, several aspects of its biology may make it particularly vulnerable. Fecundity is fairly low and parental investment in eggs an young is high. Males guard nests and young. There may be gear impacts and disturbance to habitats, nests, eggs, young, larger reproductive females, and guardian males. Consider the idea of targeting large female spawners for their eggs during the reproductive season for a nest-building species relatively low fecundity and high parental investment in eggs...with potentially habitat damaging gear? Finally, this/these species may have very small geographic area reproductive units that can make it especially vulnerable to local overfishing/extirpation and/or serial overfishing/extirpation long before the impacts are noticeable at larger geographic scales. Something to think about?

Mark Powell said...

Thanks for the scary facts on fishing lumpfish. Seems as soon as we find something new to eat from the ocean, we figure out that we shouldn't be eating it, or at least we need to be very careful. Sigh. Just when I was convinced by an email from Iceland that I have to try lumpfish caviar...

Anonymous said...

Lumpfish have long been popular in the Scandinavian countries. In Sweden, where I am from, it is very common. It is very tasty.

Anonymous said...

I don't what kind of fish is in that picture but it sure is not a lumpfish. I have been handling lupmfish and lumproe for more than 30 years and that my friends is not a lumpfish.

Anonymous said...

Same her. I am from Iceland and I´ve been fishing Lumpfish for 7 years and this is no lumpfish. Reading what Wolfman jack says ... well, Management for the fishing is strickt in Iceland ongly 50 days per licence per boat, was 90 days back in 2004. Canada alows 15 days and Norway have quota. The spicies does not have small geographic area reproductive units that can make it especially vulnerable to local overfishing/extirpation and/or serial overfishing/extirpation. The lumpfish is one of the most common fish in the Icelandic ocean, you can find it all around the country and 200 small boats maby are fishing the same as the seals eat, and the worst pretator for the eggs is the Cod. Icelandic goverment have for the last 20 years bring the quota down in cod fishing in theyr attemt to kill the small vilages around the country, the sea is now full of cod and it is eating all the lumpfish eggs along with its own eggs. I would say that the fishing is well superwised, exspecially when the marked is steddy in 30-32000 barrels and has been that way for years.

jacquievw said...

I looked for photos of lumpfish (lumpsucker) - and they all look just like the one posted above. Why the confusion?

Anonymous said...

swine of the darkness. kill it!