Where do grocery store walleyes come from?

[goblueM]

i dont know about resturants, however when it comes to retail labeling on products as far as seafood and fresh water fish the inspectors were not easy on you if they found fish that were not labeled properly. country of origin was one of the most importent "new" regs that came about prior to my retirement. there was a $10,000 fine possible if violations occurr.

in my opinion most resturants dont want their names in the news for selling products that were labeled improperly. not saying it doesnt happen, but you dont stay in buisness long. good luck.

I'm aware of labeling reqs, the sad thing is that they don't do much for ya. And I believe the label laws do not apply to restaurants, only commercial operations

http://www2.fisheries.com/archive/students/jjacquet/tradesecrets.pdf

its very widespread, whenever there is a DNA study of fish they find a ton of mis-labeled fish

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011...escolar-grouper

"In most of the citations, escolar masqueraded as tuna, tilapia stood in for red snapper, panga and emperor fillets were on menus as grouper, and imitation crab meat replaced authentic crab.

Even with more vigilant consumers and inspectors, mislabeling continues to plague the restaurant industry. For example, a Nova Southeastern University genetics class this semester tested fish advertised as white tuna from 10 sushi restaurants in Broward, Miami Dade and Palm Beach counties. The results showed eight were improperly labeled, said Professor Mahmood Shivji. A similar study last fall involving 10 restaurants in South Florida and Orlando, showed all 10 served escolar that was sold as white tuna."

A study in Manhattan found 14 of 56 samples were not the species the label claimed

http://phe.rockefeller.edu/mislabeledfish/Mislabelled%20fish.pdf

[swamptiger]

I think most of the walleye in the grocery stores comes from Canada and is wild netted fish, but there's probably also a good market for farmed fish if it's marketed properly.

From ohio4h.org:

Quote:

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- People like the taste of perch raised in Ohio's farm ponds just as well as their wild-caught counterparts, according to an Ohio State University study published in the Journal of Food Science.

That's good news for Ohio's fish farmers, but the fact that taste-testers didn't rank their product higher than the others they tried means they'll need to find another marketing niche, researchers say.

In Ohio, the aquaculture industry has grown from $1.8 million in sales in 1998 to $3.2 million in 2005. Those figures may grow in the future, as concerns about overfishing wild stocks on a global level could lead to collapse of those fisheries by mid-century.

Most of the perch raised on Ohio's fish farms supplies restaurants and grocery stores, as well as churches and other organizations that hold fish fries. In 2003, both commercial fishers of yellow perch in Lake Erie and the aquaculture industry faced some unexpected competition from a flood of imported fish from Turkey and other European countries. Although it was called "Turkish yellow perch," the species, officially called "zander," (Stizostedion lucioperca) is unrelated to the yellow perch caught and raised in Ohio (Perca flavescens).

"That's what got us started on this study," said Jeannine Delwiche, Ohio State University Extension specialist in the Department of Food Science and Technology and head of the department's Sensory Science Group. Delwiche also holds an appointment with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC).

"First, we wanted to tell if consumers could tell the different types of fish apart," Delwiche said. "Then we wanted to determine if they liked one fish better than the others."

Two years ago, Delwiche published a similar study comparing wild-caught and farm-raised yellow perch. Also published in the Journal of Food Science, that study found that consumers could distinguish between the two, but there was no statistical difference in their preference of one over the other.

In the current study, Delwiche conducted two experiments with a total of 118 volunteers who ate and evaluated pieces of fish -- battered and deep-fried -- in the department's Sensory Evaluation Laboratory. They were not told which types of fish they were eating. She asked consumers to compare the farm-raised yellow perch to three of its main competitors: wild-caught zander, wild-caught ocean perch (Sebastes marinus, a saltwater species also unrelated to the fresh-water yellow perch), and wild-caught walleye (Stizostedion vitreum).

In the first experiment, in which 50 consumers volunteered, each fillet was cut into 1.2 x 1.2 inch pieces. The thickness of each piece varied significantly depending on the thickness of the fillet, and Delwiche worried that such a difference could affect results. So, she repeated the experiment, this time with 68 volunteers, with more uniform-sized pieces.

As in the previous study, the judges in both experiments could distinguish farm-raised yellow perch, rating it as "slightly different" from the other types of fish. When asked how much they liked each fish, zander ranked the highest and walleye, the lowest, although those differences weren't statistically different from the likability rating given to farm-raised perch, Delwiche said.

"We may have seen more differences if we had served baked or broiled fish instead of the battered and fried," Delwiche said. "By preparing the fish in this manner, we may have hidden subtle flavor differences. But this is how most consumers eat this type of fish."

Geoff Wallat, a senior research associate in aquaculture with OARDC, based at Ohio State University South Centers in Piketon, assisted in Delwiche's studies and works with fish farmers throughout the state.

"This study tells me that cultured (farm-raised) perch stands up very well against its competitors," Wallat said. "On the flip side, it also showed that cultivated perch didn't stand out far and above the other types of fish. Because of that, what the industry needs to do is figure out how to distinguish its product from its competitors." He suggests focusing on the fact that the farm-raised product offers a reliable supply of a high-quality product, in which water quality, feeding and husbandry practices are controlled using best management practices.

"A lot of producers of cultured yellow perch are marketing directly to church groups or the local fire hall who hold regular fish fries," Wallat said. "And a lot of them find that once they taste it, they come back. It's a good-quality product."

The studies were funded from grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.

According to the 2005 Census of Aquaculture by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Ohio aquaculture industry raises fish as food, sport fish, bait fish, ornamental fish and crustaceans. Fish grown for food in Ohio grew in value from $648,000 in 1998 to $923,000 in 2005. Most are grown in farm ponds but some are raised in large indoor tanks.

Globally, aquaculture now accounts for up to 43 percent of worldwide supplies of fish, up from 30 percent in 2004 and 27 percent in 2002, according to an advance copy of the State of World Aquaculture: 2006 report issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

[reinhard1]

i agree. maby resturants should explain what a zander is with a short discription and a picture and they would sell a lot of it. personaly i like perch the best for frying. why? can i tell the differnce between the walley and perch fillet as far as taste? honestly i cant, just in my head maby. who knows what the wholesale cost for imported zander is vs walley from canada. that may play a part in what's on the menu as well as people asking "what is a zander". when i was a kid in germany i think we ate more eel than zander. there were plenty and easy to catch. good luck.

[kg2]

I refuse to buy fish in restaurants other than catfish. I refuse to buy fish in grocery stores other than pollock or "fish sticks" during lent. If I want to eat fish, I go catch some fresh panfish. Perhaps I am just spoiled?

[reinhard1]

this past winter was the first time i bought fish from a grocery store that i can remember. it was talapia and i must say i wasn't bad. i have always eaten what i have caught. i have grown fond of eelpout in the last two years and will try my hand at fresh catfish this year. if i dont get any salmon this year out of superior i will have no problem buying the wild salmon from alaska which comes frozen for smoking. good luck.

[Acemac]

I thought those bigger way North eyes had bones cause they were older for thier size

[trapperdirk]

In Ontario Canada the vast majority of inland lakes the commercial licenses have been bought out by the government . The Great Lakes especially lake Erie are not though . Of course some native bands still hold inland commercial licenses but the monitoring of harvests is nil when it comes to the 6 nations peoples because of all the old treaty issues that are now up for re-negotiation . Then there are also those who net,spear etc . walleye that use the " sustenance " word for commercially harvesting and selling walleye without a commercial license .

Our walleye stocks inland cannot survive any type of commercial harvest whether it's under a commercial licence or the guise of sustenance . For a natives personal freezer yes but no way the wanton way this is occurring at the mouth of rivers and streams as they go up to spawn . Even many bands don't like it but some of the populus is greed driven .

I wouldn't ever buy a walleye fillet out of a store or any private source because who knows how it was harvested or by whom .

As far as farm grown ?. Walleye have been tried in that enviroment and they are not very conducive to it because of their fragile nature and high rate of cannibalism . Stocking fry and protecting stocks from commercial fishing in the inland lakes is the only thing that works .

Am I against natives taking fish for self sustenance ?. ABSOLUTELY NOT but it bothers me that some use it as their right to plunder . There has been enough plundering by us whites when we were not monitored or to some extent restricted .

TD

[itchmesir]

i agree. maby resturants should explain what a zander is with a short discription and a picture and they would sell a lot of it. personaly i like perch the best for frying. why? can i tell the differnce between the walley and perch fillet as far as taste? honestly i cant, just in my head maby. who knows what the wholesale cost for imported zander is vs walley from canada. that may play a part in what's on the menu as well as people asking "what is a zander". when i was a kid in germany i think we ate more eel than zander. there were plenty and easy to catch. good luck.

Most restaurants these days probably use Zander in place of Walleye.. it's waaaaaay cheaper than Canadian caught walleye... and like others have said.. you really cannot tell the difference between a Zander fillet and a walleye... last 2 restaurants I have worked for used Zander..

side note.. dumbest complaint from customers "Umm.. my walleye has bones in it" yeah.. it's fish..

[ozzie]

well there is a way to take out the bones prior to preping......why would you serve your clients bones...I won't feed my guests bones in fish.....I have never bought fish from a resteraunt and never will!!

[gatorhunter]

Now for the correct answer to the original question and it's from someone who knows the facts.

If you saw a product in a large food retailer and it was called walleye, then it is almost 100% walleye.

There is a "huge" walleye commercial fishery in Western Canada. The fish comes from smaller lakes with small quotas or from larger lakes with large quotas. Lake Winnipeg, which many FMers are now familiar with, produces approximately 9,000,000 pounds of walleye! Yes, that's 9 million pounds of walleye annually. That is the recorded catch. Fishery managers and Game Wardens believe that the black market is easily as much as the legal market!

The Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation in Winnipeg buys the huge majority of the walleye from the commercial fishers in western Canada. The FFMC ships to U.S., European and Asian markets.

Commercial fishers are permitted to sell to an end consumer so long as the sale is recorded and included in their quota.

To sell to other commercial vendors, commercial fishers must be licenced by the FFMC. Once again, all sales must be accompanied by receipt to make sure that the totals are included in quota.

With respect to the larger fillets that are being seen, Ed Carlson is correct in his statement of a high demand for larger fillets. From the pure business sense, it is also cheaper to process larger fish than a whole bunch of smaller fish. For example, 50 lbs of fillets from 20 inch fish takes a whole bunch more effort than 50 lbs of fillets from 25 - 27 inch fish. Plus, a larger fillet can be sliced thinner and sold as a smaller fillet once the buyer receives his/her purchase.

If your fish is offered for sale in bars, some restaurants, shopping center parking lot, then you'll know that it is almost 100% illegally caught. The quality is very questionable and IT'S BEEN POACHED!

Call your local Game Warden if you suspect any illegal sale of fish.