the blackening of my Pangasius hypophthalmus

When is a catfish not a catfish?

When it's farmed in other countries and then sold in the United States, that's when.

I'm very much a fish eater, and because I don't like to contribute to waste if I don't have to, I often worry about the overfishing issue. For example, I love big ocean fish like ahi tuna, and I also like sharks and grouper. On the East Coast I loved it when I could get fresh New Jersey bluefish, although the latter was seasonal, and (probably because it was caught locally off the coast) it seemed to only be sold by Vietnamese vendors operating outside the normal supermarket distribution networks. It was cheaper and better than anything in the supermarkets, but harder to get. I never felt wasteful eating fresh local bluefish, because I grew up catching them, and I know them to be plentiful. Bluefish, BTW, are highly predatory, cannibalistic fish which kill what they don't eat, simply for the sake of killing. To catch them when they're really on a run, you don't even need bait; a bare hook dragged through the water will work. The wiki entry says they were once overfished, but have recovered nicely. I never noticed a bluefish shortage in New Jersey, but again, they're only caught there in the summer months, then they migrate South like people would if they had any sense.

Here in Michigan I doubt I will ever see my precious bluefish for sale, but there are the usual large ocean fish which make it into commercial distribution. I try to buy farm-raised fish if I can, and that means catish or tilapia. I prefer the former, coated first with my homemade Cajun blackening and garlic buds.

Anyway, not long ago I bought some fish that was labeled "swai filet" without having any idea what it was, and last night I cooked it the same way I cook catfish. Considering the amount of time it had been in my freezer, it wasn't bad at all, but I had decided to eat first, Google later, because I didn't know what on earth it might be and I didn't want to have my imagination (and possibly my appetite) influenced by faces like this staring at me:

Monkfish_sm.jpg

Not that I am bigoted against monkfish or any other ugly piscines, mind you. They are a gourmet treat. But then, there was also this worrisome Wiki morsel:

In Europe and North America, the texture of the tail meat of fish of the genus Lophius, is sometimes compared to lobster tail and has been alluded to as the "poor man's lobster."[2] According to Seafood Watch, monkfish consumption raises sustainability concerns due to past overfishing (though populations are thought to be recovering) and damage to the seafloor habitat resulting from the use of trawlers and gillnets to catch this fish.
No guilt tripping before meals! Reminds me too much of the starving-people-in-China routines that ruined many a meal of many a baby boomer in childhood.

The "swai" tasted remarkably like catfish, and when I Googled this morning, it turned out that's just what it is. However, because they are raised in Vietnam, they are deliberately mislabeled for the American market:

P. hypophthalmus is an important food fish and is farmed extensively in many parts of the world. It is one of the most important aquaculture species in Thailand[3] and Vietnam. Along with other farm-raised shark catfishes, it has caused much debate within the U.S., with legislation passed recently to prevent its imports from cutting into American farmed catfish sales. Prohibited to be labelled as "catfish" in the U.S., P. hypophthalmus is now labelled as "swai" (its Thai name[citation needed]), "sutchi catfish", or "striped catfish".
It appears that the American catfish farming industry lobbied the FDA and got some old-fashioned protectionism. ("Swai" is half the price of "farm raised catfish.")

I often condemn what I call "labeling," so I'm not sure where I come down on this. As a libertarian who believes in free trade, I'm all for more choices, and I'm open-minded enough to have no objection to buying "swai filet" not knowing what it was. I suspect many Americans would pass on buying unfamiliar fish, though. And while the name seems deliberately chosen to sound unfamiliar, from a marketing perspective it's probably more attractive than Pangasius hypophthalmus.

After all of this, I'm sure everyone is dying to see pictures, so here's the Vietnamese "swai":

pangasius_hypophthalmus9.jpg

And the competition, the all-American Ictalurus punctatus:

Ictalurus punctatus.jpg

Hey, I just thought of something else!

Should I feel guilty about eating commie fish?

posted by Eric on 11.02.09 at 09:31 AM





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Comments

Aren't the bones an issue for you? My experience of catfish- I'm a fish lover, too- is that it's so filled with pesky, tiny bones it's too much work to eat.
Or do I have that wrong, and am thinking of another fish?

Lynne   ·  November 2, 2009 02:25 PM

I too love eating all manner of aquatic life, and also recently bought some swai without knowing what it was.

It cooked up nicely and I thought it was great. My wife was not impressed. Only then did we look up swai and find that it is Asian channel catfish.

My wife hates catfish - apparently all catfish - so the mystery was solved.

My only concern with swai is that it is a large fish, likely much older at harvest than American farm raised catfish. Meaning that if there is any significant level of environmental pollution present in the waters (and in SE Asia who really knows?) then the fish will likely have accumulated a fair portion of whatever trouble lurks in the water (dioxins and heavy metals being my biggest concerns.)

I'm not convinced that American waters are that much cleaner, just that young, fast growing fish fed a diet of Purina fish chow are going to be at least a little safer.

So swai for me, tilapia for the wife and kids.

ThomasD   ·  November 2, 2009 02:49 PM

Lynne, I have almost never had a problem with bones in catfish filets. (Very rarely, an end or two is missed and gets in by accident.) You may have bought catfish chunks, though.

Thomas, interesting point about dioxins that might be in Vietnamese water. I never thought about it, although mercury does not worry me.

Eric Scheie   ·  November 2, 2009 03:09 PM

Should I feel guilty about eating commie fish?

Well, they're dead right?
And we all know what the best commies are.

Veeshir   ·  November 2, 2009 04:30 PM

What have you cod there?

Swai it's just a catfish.

Donna B.   ·  November 2, 2009 07:45 PM

Does anyone happen to know the names and/or locations of major U.S. fishfarming operations and what fish they raise? I really know next to nothing about this.

Lynne   ·  November 3, 2009 08:22 AM

I personally would not want 'swai' to be labelled 'catfish', as in the pic of the american catfish. The two just aren't the same.

Were it the same fish....

But it sure as heck ain't. So I kinda-sorta agree with the american catfish farmer's position.

Would you want soylent green labelled 'beef'?
More people might want to try it...

Bill Johnson   ·  November 4, 2009 04:42 PM

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