Yellow lake perch....

For those of you (myself included) who the occasional yellow lake perch fix I have news. The Lemon Tree grocery store in Downers Grove has them.....and claims they will pretty much the entire summer. I got some this past Saturday.....and got some again today...they are yellow.....and they are fresh....and they aren't cheap....but....what the hey.....the occasional splurge is ok....isn't it?

What did you pay per pound? Wild caught local?

Cbot wrote: Wild

Is there such a thing as farm raised perch? I thought fresh water perch take a few years to mature and there's no way science has figured out how to speed that up yet.

HI,

Last night, I caught an episode on Wisconsin Foodies, which talked about yellow lake perch.

The Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences has been selectively breeding yellow lake perch to farm. Yellow Lake Perch on their own take about two years to grow to harvest size. Through selective breeding, they are now at 10 months to market size.

You can catch this episode here.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:The Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences has been selectively breeding yellow lake perch to farm. Yellow Lake Perch on their own take about two years to grow to harvest size. Through selective breeding, they are now at 10 months to market size.

I'm not sure how I feel about this development. I'm not a big fan of farmed Frankenfish in general.

Hi,

I thought it was pretty cool.

Regards,
Cathy2

I'm torn between the perils of Frankenfood and the stark realities of having to keep everyone on the planet fed. Real, unaltered, unmanipulated food is becoming more scarce by the day. As such, projects like this seem entirely necessary, even if they're probably no food-lover's first choice.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm torn between the perils of Frankenfood and the stark realities of having to keep everyone on the planet fed. Real, unaltered, unmanipulated food is becoming more scarce by the day. As such, projects like this seem entirely necessary, even if they're probably no food-lover's first choice.

=R=

That's my dilemma as well. While the practice of farm raising fish is generally real bad for the environment (not to mention, who knows what they put in the stuff they feed the fish), decent wild caught fish are getting harder and harder (or at least more expensive) to source, due to both over fishing and environmental issues. I much prefer wild caught fish (at least for the present; until the oceans get so polluted that it no longer makes sense to eat them), and I guess having these farm raised specimens available will prolong the time that real, wild caught fish will be available to me and others who care.

I am open to learning more about the subject, but so far, as a matter of common sense, I don't see that selective breeding, which is as old as are agriculture and animal husbandry, should be equated with genetic engineering, as the terms "Frankenfish" and "Frankenfood" imply.

While I was typing my reply, your second reply appeared, Steve. Now I'm confused as to whether your issue is with genetically engineered fish, selectively bred fish, or simply farmed fish. It seems to be the last of these. But I don't think it's accurate to refer to all farmed fish as Frankenfish (presumably, genetically modified) fish.

lol @ Frankenfish, what nonsense

Hi,

I thought it was pretty cool.

Regards,
Cathy2

me too

Katie wrote:I don't think it's accurate to refer to all farmed fish as Frankenfish (presumably, genetically modified) fish.

You're probably correct that not all farmed fish could be called Frankenfish (Faroe Island salmon comes to mind), but in this case, the term certainly seems to apply.

Growing fish to market size in 10 months when, in nature, they take up to two years to grow makes me suspect of the process (my spidey sense tells me that there's more than simply "selective breeding" taking place), in much the same way that I'm suspect of industrially raised chickens or pigs.

The video explains that the technology involved is simply selective breeding: mating faster-growing specimens with other faster-growing specimens.

Separately, I found info on another cool (but non Frankenfish!) development by the same UW Milwaukee lab in producing yellow lake perch:

Fred Binkowski, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences and the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institue's aquaculture specialist, figured out a way to get yellow perch to spawn year round, creating the potential for both fully stocked Friday fish fries in Wisconsin and a providing the year-round production of perch fingerlings. ... The United States Patent Office, through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Research Foundation, has awarded Binkowski a patent on the process of out-of-cycle spawning for yellow perch. ... By manipulating water temperature and photoperiod in fish tanks at UWM’s Great Lakes WATER Institute, Binkowski was able to trick the yellow perch, which normally only spawn in April and May in Wisconsin, to spawn year round. Breeding the fish in captivity also carries the benefit of dramatically increasing survival.

Katie wrote:The video explains that the technology involved is simply selective breeding: mating faster-growing specimens with other faster-growing specimens.

Well all I can say is, enjoy your farmed raised lake perch. You are more than welcome to eat my share.

But I hasten to add, Steve and Ronnie, that I understand and, to a large extent, share your concerns about the quality, safety, sustainability, and ethics of consumption of fish and seafood, both wild and farmed. It's only in the last couple of years I've bothered to study up on the topic more. I have become more selective about my purchases. I stick to Alaskan salmon now, for example, not North Atlantic or Chilean, and I go out of my way to avoid buying fish and shellfish from Southeast Asia. However, I'm not necessarily suspicious of all US farmed fish, just because it's farmed, until I learn the specifics.

Katie wrote:But I hasten to add, Steve and Ronnie, that I understand and, to a large extent, share your concerns about the quality, safety, sustainability, and ethics of consumption of fish and seafood, both wild and farmed. It's only in the last couple of years I've bothered to study up on the topic more. I have become more selective about my purchases. I stick to Alaskan salmon now, for example, not North Atlantic or Chilean, and I go out of my way to avoid buying fish and shellfish from Southeast Asia. However, I'm not necessarily suspicious of all US farmed fish, just because it's farmed, until I learn the specifics.

Honestly, for me it's a hedonistic concern and mostly about flavor. When it comes to fish, farmed almost never tastes as good as wild. But again, there are some serious concerns driving this and there's just nothing wrong with that at all.

=R=