tilefish

The tilefish is another one of those fish that keep popping up on restaurant menus that you have probably never heard of.  We are seriously overfishing the seas, hence, we have to keep moving on to fish that never used to be on the radar, so to speak.  

Sometimes, they just re-name a fish and sell it with the new name.  Chilean Sea Bass is one of those.  It used to be called the Patagonian Toothfish, which was passed over and was thought to be a trash-fish.  But once we ran out of the usual stuff, we turned to this fish, re-named it Chilean Sea Bass, and suddenly it is a delicacy.

The tilefish is another story.  We had some at a restaurant recently, and it was quite good.

Tilefish, sometimes known as “the clown of the sea,” is a colorful fish –blue-green and iridescent on the back, with numerous spots of bright yellow and gold, their bellies are white, and their heads are rosy with blue under the eyes.

Tilefish is a mild-tasting white fish harvested from southern New England to the Gulf of Mexico. The saying “you are what you eat” rings true for this fish – they mainly feed on crustaceans such as shrimp and crabs, and people often describe the tilefish’s sweet flavor as similar to crab or lobster. Tilefish was first caught and identified in 1879 in waters south of Nantucket. A commercial fishery quickly developed in this area when people discovered what a tasty meal tilefish made.

Today, the commercial tilefish fisheries in the Mid-Atlantic/Southern New England and the Gulf of Mexico are managed through individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs. While the specific details of these programs vary by region, in general managers allocate a share of the annual catch to participating fishermen. Fishermen can choose when to fish for their share throughout the year, ideally when market and weather conditions are best. Catch-share programs such as these offer fishermen a direct incentive to use sustainable practices – the catch quota can be increased as fish populations grow, leading to an increase in each fisherman’s individual share and subsequent profits.

In the South Atlantic, fishing rates had been too high since the 1980s. Managers implemented measures in 2007 to stop overfishing and maintain the tilefish population. These regulations reduced harvest by one-third, and a recent assessment found they have ended overfishing and helped the tilefish stock grow. As a result, managers recently increased annual catch limits for both the commercial and recreational tilefish fisheries.

Original.  These things are BIG.