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Escolar, a fish famous for causing diarrhea and anal leakage, has been found masquerading as tuna at sushi restaurants, according to a DNA research study recently published by a group of scientists. The escolar was found five times during the brief research project, which included visits to 31 sushi restaurants in NYC and beyond. The study also found that some restaurants are also selling endangered southern bluefin tuna.
The study is part of an effort to build a database of every fish species on earth, which might one day enable anyone with a handheld DNA reader to identify their fish. According to the report (which doesn't name the restaurants), "nineteen of 31 restaurants erroneously described or failed to identify the sushi they sold. Twenty-two of 68 samples were sold as species that were contradicted by molecular identification... The five samples of escolar sold as a variant of 'white tuna' are considered a misrepresentation because this species is a snake mackerel, belonging to the distantly related family Gempylidae."
Last August, a group of high school seniors spent about $300 collecting sushi samples from NYC restaurants and groceries, then sent them off to a lab for DNA bar code analysis. Two out of the four restaurants were found to be serving cheap tilapia passed off as expensive white tuna, and six out of ten grocery stores had fake fish. According to Wired, before these hand-held DNA devices can become the perfect stocking-stuffer, zoologists need to first agree on a system to condense the genetic information from each fish into a concise "signature."
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Not a surprise. Greed trumps again.
The fact is over fishing and pollution is killing our oceans and all it's inhabitants. Fisherie's and restaurant just want money money money at any cost.
Watch this:
www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sylvia_earle_s_ted_prize_wish_to_protect_our_oceans.html'
www.aseachange.net
Read this:
na.oceana.org
Not a surprise. Greed trumps again.
The fact is over fishing and pollution is killing our oceans and all it's inhabitants. Fisherie's and restaurant just want money money money at any cost.
Watch this:
http://www.aseachange.net/
Read this:
http://na.oceana.org/
You reap what you sow.
I giggled at the first sentence. I know people to whom this has happened and it's always funny.
Americans are too dumb to notice the difference anyway.
That explains the 2008 election.
i don't get it.
You just proved it again.
LOL.
man, i love sushi. but this is horrifying
Jeremy Piven agrees.
Not really surprising, you have all of these fake Japanese restaurants run by Koreans and Chinese people that serve the scraps from the fish market and tada! you have escolar being sold off as prime tuna. Happily most New Yorkers don't know the difference between the people nor the fish they eat so it all works out.
We also get humored by novelty rolls like dragon/spider rolls...wtf. I'll eat my sushi in Japan, thanks.
You mean some of my "Sea Kitten" was actually raccoon?
I'm not really surprised at all. May sushi restaurant owners doing this for decades all over the world. Let's just be safe.
Actually escolar is sold as white tuna in many Korean and Chinese owned places.
Most Japanese owned sushi restaurants do not serve it, in fact it is banned in Japan.
I just knew I was tasting snake mackerel.
I liked this story better when I read it on Wired.
Both are inaccurate. Escolar is actually a good fish to eat, as long as it's cooked right and the portion isn't huge (whuddup Ahmurkuh).
I'm not one to complain about the content of this blog since I'm usually happy to read most of your content, but at least the Wired article was originally inaccurate.
Why not an NYC spin on it? There are surprisingly few regulations on what restaurants can label the food they're serving as. This happens most often with fish. Peruvian tooth fish anyone?
I'm from Texas. Just give me a thick, juicy steak cooked medium rare anyday.