Big Walleyes at your local grocery store...

[fisherman-andy]

So I stopped in my Local Sams Club for some grilling meat over the weekend. Going through the meat section and seafood I find what appears to be very "LARGE" Walleye filets.

It was being sold as a single filet for about $15-$18 and they were as big as Salmon filets. It would have had to come from a very large Walleye I say maybe 27"-30" size fish. And there were quite a few large filets packaged like that too so it was no fluke. I compared them to the regular Walleye filets packages there which typically consist of a 16"-20" fish.

Not that I see anything wrong with this but these were claimed fresh Northern Canadian Walleyes. I thought It was unusual to see such large filets as I refuse eat a Walleye that big. However I was somewhat concerned on the harvest of such large fish for food.

[Hookmaster]

I saw the large walleye fillets at Byerley's in Chanhassen. Largest I've seen in a grocery store. $17.99/pound. Had to be at least 25 inch fish.

[OnAFly]

There are a few lakes in northern Ontario that they net these out of in the winter. Regardless of how far removed from civilization they are, much of the Hg contamination is caused by far away coal plants and eating an old fish like that would me a little nervous, regardless of where it came from.

But, hey I know one guys who eats 27" fish out of metro lakes...sooo

[Het]

Most likely netted from the 'northern' Canadian side of Lake Erie.

[JohnMickish]

It could also be european zander past off as walleye. Several restaurants in the area got busted a couple years ago for doing that.

[Fish Head]

I've seen them at Sams club also. They look like they're all 25-28 inch fish. I wondered the same thing as mnfishinguy... zander. I remember when they busted all those restaraunts for selling zander and calling it walleye.

[reinhard1]

heavy penalties for putting false information on packages. country of origin is the label to look at. i would doubt that sams club would sell a product that they knew had false information on the package. they dont need the publicity, nor does anyone else. if they or anyone did know something was false and put it out for sale heavy penalties should happen. good luck.

[JohnMickish]

Right, Sams club/Walmart never does anything shady. Remember the "Made In America" clothing they used to sell? Made in a city called America, problem was the city was located in South Korea.

[goblueM]

a lot of the time the supplier is the one lying and the buyer, be it a restaurant or a grocery store, is ignorant

[reinhard1]

never said they walk on water. however prior to retiring i knew for a fact the people i worked for would never buy anything that wasn't what it was supposed to be. if the wholesaler sold something that wasn't proper that seller would no longer have a sale again. there is too much at stake in today's buisness and competion. i cant speak for walmart or sam's club, only that i would doubt that they are out to intentionaly label products wrong. products such as seafood must be labeled with the country of origin. large company's could afford large fines but not bad publicity. good luck.

[goblueM]

some good reading

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/science/earth/27fish.html?_r=1

[reinhard1]

that is an interesting article. the article confirmes my contention of country of origin stipulations as far as selling a product. when a inspector does come to a store that is what they look for. never seen one do a dna test to confirm or deny any species.

so the bottom line is, could resturants or stores like sams or cubs or rainbow sell prducts "not labeled correctly"? possibly, but in my opinion not intentional. i have no idea how resturants recieve their seafood weather bulk ice packed or packed frozed or how they are inspected. my experience has been in meat departments were i have checked in tons of fish over 35 years and they have come in ice packed fresh for the most part with some frozen already packaged.

all fish come in clearly marked and with country of origin. stores like cub or rainbow handle basicly standard species that are normaly purchased. specialty markets handle the more exotic fish speicies and there you may see what is described in the article in the times along with your resturants. good luck.