Cigutera and Farm Fish

[Ian_Lee]

Recently dozens of people got Cigutera in HK by eating big coral fishes and needed to be hospitalized.

Cigutera is quite a recent phenomenon and the sickness only happened about one decade ago. According to some fishermen, the algae in Paracels (Dongsha) and Spratlys (Xisha) don't have the toxin that would caise Cigutera. But now the fish stock has been mostly depleted in those areas, the fishermen go farther and farther to fish.

Those big coral fishes that caused cigutera recently are found out to be imported from the Carribean.

I personally got cigutera before. The syptom is very funny. My hand would feel hot under icy water while feel cold under hot water.

Now I refrain to eat over 2 lb coral fish and never touch the sperm and fish head (the most delicious part in my opinion).

Since ocean fish has become scarce, many gourmets turn to farm fish. Actually starting from the '70s, the twin Red Bass that has been a must on banquet table in HK are all harvests from farm fish.

Now even inland city like Xian has opened HK-Style seafood restaurant with fish tank nourishing live coral fish on display in front of their stalls. I guess the ocean fish price will jump higher and higher in future. (Just curious, do they ship all those sea water that needs to be changed everyday in the tank by airplane to Xian?)

[wiz_oz]

Ciguatera has always been around. It is the accumulation of toxins in sea fishes. However it is not restricted to coral fishes. Pelagic fishes like spanish mackerel have it too.

You are right. The larger the fish the greater the chance.

Some areas of oceans are more prone.

Eg in Australia, it is not recommended to eat the red bass but it is quite happily consumed in Borneo. The Great Barrier Reef is quite prone to ciguatera.

Perhaps more awareness of this might make the Hong-Kongese think thrice about their sea food esp the Napolean wrasse.

[wiz_oz]

Farmed fish have proven to be problematic as well.

The farmed salmon is a good example. Pollution, escaped fish breeding with wild stock, sea lice proliferation etc. And the latest is higher level of dangerous chemicals in the fish itself. Apparently it is from the feed given to the fish. The feed is made from fishmeal which in turn comes from polluted waters. I do not know how bad the levels are, just that it is more than in wild salmon. To be expected since wild salmon range over a huge area and feed in much cleaner waters.

In a lot of Asian countrties, farmed sea food have a high level of anti-biotics as well. Apparently low dose antibiotics are given to whatever is being farmed to control outbreak of diseases. This includes fish, prawns (or shrimp) abalone and other products as well.

[Ian_Lee]

wiz_oz:

For the time being, it seems only HKers and Cantonese in Guangdong are addicted to coral fish (recently there are cases of cigutera in Shenzhen and Guangzhou).

Even though US, Taiwan, Korea and Japan are all big fishing nations, apparently their taste buds are different from HKers and Cantonese as judged by the kinds of fish they devour.

But assuming the current pace and trend unchanged, the affluent 80 million people in Guangdong and 7 million HKers should deplete all the coral fish stock in the world before the end of this century

Anyway, the risk of cigutera seems smaller than MCD since so far none of the cigutera cases in HK are fatal.

[wiz_oz]

Ian_Lee, Seem like you like fish head and I do agree that it can be the best part of the fish or the worst, depending on which type of fish.

How do you like your fish head done? Fish head curry, clay pot ?????

At the moment, we can get very cheap fish head over in Sydney because very few buy it. Seems like the chicken wing situation mentioned in some other thread on this forum

[Ian_Lee]

wiz_oz:

You are right. Fish head is my favorite.

But Curry Fish Head Malay style doesn't fit my taste bud because the strong curry odor blurs the fresh flavor of the fish meat.

I like the dim sum "Sour bamboo shoots steamed with fish head". But so far only restaurants in HK serve this dim sum. Most Chinatown restaurants overseas hesitate to make this.

And in Shanghaiese restaurant, they got the famous "Funn-Pi Fish Head" served in big clay pot.