Eat Wild Seafood

Eat Wild Seafood!  In his book, “The Perfect Protein: The Fish Lover’s Guide to Saving the Oceans,” Oceana CEO Andy Sharpless touts the virtues of well-managed fisheries and incites the public to eat the less-known seafood species.   “Eat wild seafood.  Not too much of the big fish.  Mostly local.”  Well, after catching a 100-lb sailfish, we decided to spread OCEANA’s message.  We have been catching small fish, gathering mollusks and bivalves, and I’ve been creating healthy seafood recipes.  

If you live in the big city, the recipes I’ve created might be a bit difficult to execute but they can always be substituted with frozen seafood.  But if you live on any of the U.S. coastal area, you can adapt the recipes to your local fresh seafood.  Follow my recipe blog for easy seafood recipes that use small fish and lesser-known seafood varieties.

We’ve been cruising for 3 ½ years now, non-stop.  If we’re not in the city (for provisioning or administrative purposes,) we fish, dive, snorkel, hunt, forage, troll, jig… we catch our own food.  How much?  Just what we’re going to eat for the next 24 hours.  If we’re planning a party or happy hour, we catch a bit more.  If we’re going back to the city, we fill-up the freezer with fish for the anticipated time in the city.  We take what we need and can immediately share, no more.

Do all cruisers fish?  You’d think so.  But it’s not so.  Many cruisers do not fish.  Catching fish on a sailboat can be tricky, slowing down the boat to bring the big fish; cleaning it on the back step can be dangerous in big seas; regardless, high-seas fishing is a messy affair… as it is on a dinghy (to a lesser degree) or kayak.  Lots of cleanup!  Some cruisers don’t like to clean fish.  Some don’t like to cook it.  Others do not have refrigeration, let alone a freezer.  Many are just happy to accept our “catch of the day” that we are delighted to share.  Yet, another kind of cruiser loves to fish into our freezer.  That’s cool.    Sharing our catch with our fellow cruisers or trading with the locals for fresh produce are some of the most significant activities… that, and a little rum!

But I digress… back to the fish.  What are we catching, really?  Since we’ve been on the Pacific side of Panama, I’ve kept a tally: 260 days = 260 fish.  Big fish, little fish, and no-fish, that is to say oysters, sea snails, and other odd sea creature (those don’t come into the tally.)  Only one little lobster, by the way. 

Big fish are rare.  Since we started cruising, we’ve only caught 3 big fish: a 45-lb dorado off of Miami, a 65-lb marlin on the north coast of Utila (Honduras) and a 100-lb sailfish in Las Perlas.  That’s it.  Once in a while, we catch a fish in the 20-lb range, usually a Dorado, but also bottom-fishing for Grouper or Greater Amberjack.  But that’s rare. 

We haven’t hit the Tuna yet and the Wahoo from the Caribbean are a dim memory (considering we had to toss all of them in Puerto Rico, infected with Ciguatera.)  So, we concentrate on smaller fish… and what a treat!

We love kayaking and we always troll a line.  This has brought us countless snappers of all kinds: pink, red, yellow, spotted, as well as rockfish (Flag Cabrilla) and small groupers (Panama Graysby.)

Yellow Snapper.... from the ice to the grill

Trolling off the dinghy is fun too, usually bringing bigger fish such as Pompano and Cubera Snapper, even skipjacks.  But we get our kicks when underwater hunting.  We only shoot what we really want (trigger fish, parrotfish, hogfish, cierra) and, if we manage to snag a nice fish, we share it.

Lately, we’ve taken to foraging the rocks at low tide.  Sea snails and rock oysters have appeared regularly on our table.  

Wild Pacific Oyster;;;;  Bigger than JP's hand!

The Panamenean Rock oysters are incredibly large and incredibly good, and I dare any Frenchman from my home-town of La Rochelle to a taste test: these rock oysters are superior to the French farmed oysters, even Gillardeau! 

And there are the other oysters and bivalves that we use for seafood medley, seafood pasta, seafood au gratin.  I mean sea snails, giant rock scallops, black oysters, pearl oysters, sea scallops, clams and the occasional wild mussels.  Whatever the day, we put something in the pot.

But we’ve been concentrating on small fish.  How small?  Try the slender cornetfish, delicious pan-fried, or the small jacks we catch on the 6-hook line (“mitraillette”) at sunset, or even the green-fleshed, fierce-teeth needlefish that, once breaded and sautéed, is a favorite at Happy Hour.

So many ways to cook “lesser” seafood!  I’m working on creating and sharing my recipes with you.  You can download them from Domino’s Healthy Recipes Blogspot.   

Catch of the day: 2 rose-spotted snappers and a hogfish, from the Kayak

And remember… Eat Fish, not too big, mostly local!

Bon Appetit….

Gumbo:  Okra and Sierra (Spanish Mackerel

Dominomarie, R.D.