Rocky Mountain Trout Fishing, by Don Orth

Fly fishing for trout in the western US is more than a leisure activity. Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It begins with “In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.” Later Maclean writes that "Something within fishermen tries to make fishing into a world perfect and apart.” The iconography of western fly fishing that Maclean and others wrote about was created by anglers, fisheries managers, tourists, guides, businesses, and region promoters.  The history of Rocky Mountain fly fishing parallels the history of our western frontier as well as fisheries management (Brown 2015). Although Henry David Thoreau maintained that “In wildness is the salvation of the world,” humans are part of the trout fishing system and helped create, destroy, or maintain the trout fishing we have today.  Here I provide a brief overview of this history.  

Montana is world famous for its fly fishing—yet a brochure boasts a photo of a brown trout on the cover (see below).  I’m not a purist or a nativist when it comes to trout. Admittedly rainbow trout outnumber native brook trout in my home state as well as surrounding states.  History of trout fishing is far from sacred.  

Cover of brochure of the Montana River Outfitters.

Era of the Displaced Native Americans (or Custer’s Last Trout Fishing) 

First trout fishers were native Americans. Native Americans used a variety of fishing methods, including weirs, spears, nets, traps, baskets, hook and line methods, baits, and even deer hair in flies. Native Americans also caught fish by hand via tickling or huddling.  This method is different from noodling for catfish, where the noodler uses fingers as bait grabbing the catfish by its mouth. American naturalist William Bartram (1739-1823) described native Americans fly fishing (Monahan ND). 

The story of Rocky Mountain trout fishing begins with displacement of native Americans from their fishing and hunting grounds. Uninhabited wilderness had to be created through the dispossession of Native people before it could be preserved (Spence 1999).  Explorers, trappers, pioneers, soldiers, and homesteaders brought fishing gear to frontier outposts.  The Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-1806) included a designated angler, named Silas Goodrich. The expedition first described several new species of fish, including the Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout and Westslope Cutthroat Trout, caught by Goodrich. Later military expeditions spent time trout fishing in addition to fighting Native Americans. Custer last stand might have been avoided if he’d joined a column of reinforcements under General George Crook.  Crook’s soldiers were comfortably camped close by on Goose Creek near the Tongue River—fishing (Monnett 1993; Owens 2002; Lessner 2010). Crook was a fly fisher, and it’s sad to think Custer would have avoided his last stand at Little Bighorn if he went fishing with General Crook.

Era of Rugged Individualism 

The term ‘rugged individualism’indicates the ideal whereby an individual is totally self-reliant and independent from outside, usually state or government, assistance. It is closely associated with the western expansion. Frontier settlers were disproportionately male, prime-age, illiterate, and foreign-born (Buzzi et al. 2017).   The Homestead Act (1862) provided adult citizens who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land.  Settlers did not want government interference with his freedom as he followed the frontier road to riches. By the 1890s loggers were removing timber, trappers we’re removing beavers, farmers were irrigating arid lands for agriculture, and some were buying land for fishing in remote areas of Rocky Mountain.  Miners and railroad workers introduced fishing with dynamite. 

The American Angler's Book: Embracing the Natural History of Sporting Fish, and the Art of Taking Them.
by Thaddeus Norris.  

When did rugged individualist become elitist fly fishers? The first fly fishers who visited wrote for outdoor magazines popularized the notion of Rocky Mountains as a paradise for fly fishing.   One of these was Thaddeus Norris, “Uncle Thad” (1811-1877), who wrote The American Angler’s Book in 1864.   Fly fishing at the time was a luxury and a leisure pursuit of only the wealthy in the U.S. Also, according to Mordue (2009) “in practice, but wholly in terms of social class distinctions fly fishing in the USA retained a sense of masculine individualism but was a means of conspicuous consumption where the angling tourist exercised power over local land and people.”

This led to a second wave of western expansion by those who argued that fly fishing was more ethical than spearfishing methods used by native Americans and fishing with hook and line to feed the homesteader's family.  This second wave include many writers who wax poetic when it comes to fly fishing.  Some writers —who are also fly fishers — claim that “fly fishers are better people all around.” (Soos 1999, p 18). At some point the frontier trout fishermen noted declines in rich abundance of trout.  Methods other than hook and line for catching trout were outlawed in most states and territories by late 19th century. Barton Evermann (1891, 1894) and David Starr Jordan (1890) were among the early Ichthyologists who did surveys in the Rocky Mountain streams.  In his 1889 surveys, Jordan commented on the many trout entrained in irrigation ditches and “left to perish in the fields.”  He also commented on the many surveyed waters where eastern brook trout were introduced and doing well. Declines in numbers of trout were inevitable...due to many causes including fishing, mining, overgrazing, water diversion, dams, logging, and removal of large wood.  The irony of rugged individuals asking for government assistance in building federal and state trout hatcheries led to the next era.   

“God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.”

 Izaak Walton

Hatchery Era

Trout hatcheries were an American invention and the American Fish Culturists’ Association (now the American Fisheries Society was formed in 1870). The first federal fish hatchery, known as the Baird Hatchery, was established in 1872 on the McCloud River in California.  Soon it was shipping eggs of trout and salmon throughout the US and the world (Stone 1897). Other federal hatcheries were soon built in Leadville, Colorado (1889), Bozeman, Montana (1892), and Spearfish, South Dakota (1896) to stock Cutthroat Trout, Brook Trout, Rainbow Trout, and Brown Trout into waters.  The first fish hatchery in Virginia was constructed by the Virginia Fish Commission in 1879 at a spring on Tate's Run near Wytheville (Chitwood 1989).   

  

Baird Hatchery Station on McCloud River, California.  Mount Persephone in background.  Public Domain from Livingstone Stone (1897 )  Source

Many millions of trout are produced and stocked each year to meet the demand for trout fishing. Stocking catchable trout provides higher returns and angler satisfaction (Wiley et al. 1993). But it is an expensive undertaking and bio security and fish health concerns requires substantial infrastructure improvements as well as feed and personnel costs.  While fly fishers brought notions of fishing for sport, not subsistence, and concern for angler ethics, they lobbied for regulation changes that provided more waters for fly fishing.  But scientists investigating trout waters soon revealed the fallacy of hatchery solutions and we entered the Wild Trout Restoration Era.

Wild Trout Restoration Era

An emphasis on the hatchery strategy masked a long legacy of detrimental effects of mining, dewatering, overgrazing, and other forms of stream degradation. Trout Unlimited, the largest and certainly most prominent cold‐water fishery conservation association in the USA with more than 150,000 members were vocal advocates for habitat protection.   Yet, it took many years to convince fisheries managers to quit heavy stocking.  In 1974, after studies by Dick Vincent, Montana Fish and Game Commission Montana stunned anglers across the state and the nation and stopped stocking trout in streams and rivers that supported wild trout populations (Zacheim 2006). The new strategy was based on a concept of self-propagating fisheries rather than hatchery supplementation.  Pierce et al. (2019) chronicle the many projects to focus on habitat protection and restoration to restore wild trout to the Blackfoot River.  Roderick Haig-Brown preached earlier to “just protect the habitat, the rest will take care of itself" (Sloan and Prosek 2003, p 144). This admonition to "first protect" is the foundation of Trout Unlimited’s conservation approach. Numerous restoration methods are needed for trout stream restoration, including enhancing instream flows in trout-rearing areas, preventing fish loss in irrigation canals, reconstructing altered streams to naturalize channel form and function, and fencing livestock from riparian areas (Pierce et al. 2019).

The future of wild trout and wild trout fishing is threatened by a legacy of beaver extirpation, logging, wood removal, dams, irrigation withdrawals, and more. Popular game fish, such as Walleye and Northern Pike (McMahon and Bennett 1996), and nonnative trout (Dunham et al. 2002, 2004; Quist and Hubert 2004; Budy and Gaeta  2018) displace native trout in the Rocky Mountain region. Whirling disease introduced from infected trout has the potential to reduce wild trout populations. But the threat of climate change on wild trout, especially Bull Trout and Cutthroat Trout may be most difficult to mitigate because these species are already constrained to high elevations and latitudes (Kunkel et al. 2013; Isaak et al. 2015).   The era of wild trout restoration will dominate the actions of fisheries and land managers for the next generation.

Westslope Cutthroat Trout Onchorhynchus clarkii lewisi  (Richardson, 1836)
Photo by National Park Service.  Source.

References

Brown, J. C. 2015. Trout Culture: How Fly Fishing Forever Changed the Rocky Mountain West. Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press.  248 pp.

Budy, P., and J.W. Gaeta. 2018. Brown Trout as an invader: A synthesis of problems and perspectives in North America. Pages 525-543 in Javier Lobón-Cerviá and Nuria Sanz, editors, Brown Trout: Biology, Ecology and Management, First Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Buzzi, S., M. Fiszbein, and M. Gebreskilasse. 2017. Frontier Culture: The Roots and Persistence of “Rugged Individualism” in the United States.  NBER Working Paper No. 23997 76 pp. 

https://www.bu.edu/econ/files/2017/03/Frontier-Culture-The-Roots-and-Persistence-of-“Rugged-Individualism”-in-the-United-States-2.pdf

Chitwood, W. R. 1989. The Old Wytheville Fish Hatchery," The Mountain Laurel - The Journal of Mountain Life, September, 1989, http://mtnlaurel.com/mountain-memories/1576-the-old-wytheville-fish-hatchery.html

Dunham, J.B., S.B. Adams, R.E. Schroeter, and D.C. Novinger. 2002. Alien invasions in aquatic ecosystems: toward an understanding of brook trout invasions and potential impacts on inland cutthroat trout in western North America. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 12, 373–391.

Dunham, J.B., P.S. Pilliod, and M.K. Young. 2004. Assessing the consequences of nonnative trout in headwater ecosystems in western North America. Fisheries 29(6):18-26.

Haig-Brown, V. 1997. Deep Currents: Roderick and Ann Haig-Brown.  Orca Book Publishers, Victoria, B.C.

Evermann, B. W. 1891. A reconnaissance of the streams and lakes of western Montana and northwestern Wyoming. Fishery Bulletin 11(1):1-60

Evermann, B.W., and C. Ritter. 1894. The Fishes of the Colorado basin. fishery Bulletin 14(1):473-486.  

Isaak, D., M. Young, D. Nagel, D. Horan, and M. Groce. 2015. The cold-water climate shield: delineating refugia for preserving salmonid fishes through the 21st century. Global Change Biology 21:2540–2553.

Jordan, D. S. 1890. Report of Explorations in Colorado and Utah during the Summer of 1889, with an Account of the Fishes Found in Each of the River Basins Examined. N.d. Nineteenth Century Collections Online, http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BPshL0. Accessed 22 July 2019.

Kunkel, K.E., Stevens, L.E., Stevens, S.E., Sun, L., et al. 2013. Regional Climate Trends and Scenarios for the U.S. National Climate Assessment Part 5. NESDIS 142‐5, NOAA Technical Report.

Lessner, R. 2010. How Meriwether Lewis ‘s cutthroat trout sealed Custers fate at the Little Bighorn. American Fly Fisher 36(4) fall 2010 17

McMahon, T.E., and D.H. Bennett. 1996.  Walleye and Northern Pike: Boon or bane to Northwest Fisheries. Fisheries 21(8):6-13.

Monahan, P.  N.D.  Did native Americans invent fly fishing for bass? Midcurrent website.  Accessed July 23, 2019. https://midcurrent.com/history/did-native-americans-invent-fly-fishing-for-bass/d

Monnett, J.H. 1993. Mystery of the Bighorns: Did a fishing trip seal Custer’s fate? American Fly Fisher 19(4):2-5.

Mordue, T. 2009. Angling in modernity: A tour through society, nature and embodied passion. Current Issues in Tourism 12(5):529-552.

Owens, K. “While Custer Was Making His Last Stand: George Crook’s 1876 War on Trout in the Bighorn Country,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 52(2):58–61.

Quist, M.C. and W. A. Hubert. 2004. Bioinvasive species and the preservation of cutthroat trout in the western United States: ecological, social, and economic issues. Environmental Science and Policy 7:303-313.

Sloan, S., and J. Prosek. 2003.   Fly Fishing Is Spoken Here: The Most Prominent Anglers in the World Talk Tactics, Strategies, and Attitudes. Lyons Press, Guilford, Connecticut. 288 pp.

Soos, F. 1999. Bamboo Fly Rod Suite: Reflections on Fishing and the Geography of Grace.  University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia.  

Spence, M.D. 1999. Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks.  Oxford University Press, New York.   190 pp.  

Stone, Livingston (1897) Artificial Propagation of Salmon on the Pacific Coast of the United States, with Notes on the Natural History of the Quinnat Salmon, Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, vol. 16, 1896, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office 

Pierce, R., W.L. Knotek, C. Podner, and D. Peters.  2019. Blackfoot River restoration: a thirty-year review of a wild trout conservation endeavor.  Pages xxx-xxx in American Fisheries Symposium 91. Accessed  July 20, 2019 from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b4234523c3a53d2db20deb6/t/5cfd2509bb03dd000174a8da/1560094022564/Blackfoot+River+Restoration+-+a+30-year+wild+trout+conservatin+endeavor+6-3-2019.pdf

Wiley, R.W., R.A. Whaley, J.B. Satake, and M. Fowden. 1993. Assessment of stocking hatchery trout: a Wyoming perspective.  North American Journal of Fisheries Management 13:160-170.    

Zackheim, H. 2006. A history of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Fisheries Division, 1901–2005. Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Helena. Accessed https://archive.org/details/historyofmontana2005zack

Siberian Taimen: Ensuring the Survival of the River Wolf, by Spencer Bell

Deep in the most remote regions of Russia, China, and Mongolia lurks the largest salmonid in the world, the Siberian Taimen. Sitting at the crossroads of folklore and reality, the Hucho taimen has long held the imagination of western anglers searching for the thrill of fighting “the big one”. Due to the life history of Taimen though, angling must be done responsibly to avoid negative impacts. Even the removal of a single reproducing Taimen could have devastating impacts. How then can we ensure the continuation of fish such as the Siberian Taimen in a world developing in ways that may harm them? Historically, low population densities of the Siberian Taimen were found throughout Russia and the northern watersheds of China, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia (Dulmaa 1999; Vander Zanden et al. 2007; Hogan and Jensen 2013).

Taimen thrive in swift flowing water with high oxygen levels.  Depending on competition, they can require up to 60 river miles for home range.  Although not anadromous, Taimen travel huge distances during spawning periods.   After spawning, females place 4,000-30,000 eggs under gravel in stream bottoms (Hogan and Jensen 2013).  As Taimen are both slow growing and late to mature, it takes five to seven years to reach sexual maturity.  Those few Taimen that reach maturity can grow as large as 60 inches and 60 pounds over a 50 year lifespan, though individuals of that age are rare due to targeted fishing (Holcik et al. 1988).  As opportunistic feeders, Taimen live by the rule that if it fits in their mouth, its food.  This includes mostly fish, but also birds, rodents, bats, and even other Taimen if alternative food sources are unavailable.  Large fish live alone, but younger fish will travel and even hunt in packs at times lending this fish the moniker, the river wolf. 

Siberian Taimen, Hucho taimen.  Source 

Before access to Taimen fisheries was opened to the west, the only glimpse anglers had of the river wolf was through the lens of myth.  Russians told of fish 30 feet long, able to rip trees holding set lines out of the ground.  In Mongolia, stories told of a giant Taimen stuck in ice.  Nomads ate of the fish chunk by chunk until the spring thaw.  Once the giant Taimen was free, it climbed onto land and devoured the nomads in return.  Myths such as these have contributed to local aversions of streams where Taimen are found.  In addition to rarely eating fish, Mongolians are careful when allowing children and livestock in streams home to Taimen.  In Buddhist culture though, Taimen as the children of river spirits.     Hucho taimen may be known to the Chinese as "the river god's daughter,"     Mongolian Buddhist have protected the home streams of Taimen for generations in reverence of their beliefs for centuries.  But even this cultural affinity has not been able to protect Taimen from recent development along their native streams. 

Three Taimen, underwater photo from Eg River, northern Mongolia.  Source. 

Due to its ecology, Siberian Taimen are especially vulnerable to impacts that remove individuals from the breeding population.  In Russia, historical commercial and subsistence fishing is believed to have been as high as 150-200 metric tons annually.  By the mid-1950s mass poaching combined with contamination from industry and agricultural waste had led to localized extinctions throughout the country.  Even when protections were put in place in 1988, continued illegal harvesting reduced populations to the point that fish may have been unable to find mates in coastal areas of northern Lake Baikal.  In China where Taimen are limited to two watersheds, illegal fishing and overharvest have led to population declines as high as 95% with ranges limited to 7% of historic ranges in the past 50 years (Ocock et al. 2006).  With native populations plummeting, illegal fish trade has developed between China and Mongolia resulting in further declines where the Taimen is not as heavily harvested (Chandra et al. 2005).  Outside of this illegal trade, impacts on Taimen in Mongolia are mainly due to development, mining, and overgrazing.  As fishing is not historically part of Mongolian culture, population declines have been more moderate at approximately 50% in the past 30 years.  These declines are predicted to increase in the future though due to illegal trade with China (Chandra et al. 2005).  In Mongolia, hope for the Taimen’s survival may rest in the nation’s ability to develop economic incentives to limit over harvest.

Although declining on all fronts, the future of the Taimen may actually depend on fishing itself (Stubblefield et al. 2005; Vander Zanden et al. 2007).  With the cooling of Cold War tensions in the late 1980s-early 1990s, western anglers first gained access to the streams where Taimen were native.  In Mongolia, a new tourist industry began to be developed to cater to the needs fishermen.  Instead of targeting these fish for filets as the locals though, these anglers were looking to catch “the big one” for bragging rights then release their prize.  Nearly as soon as the iron curtain fell, outfits began popping up that focused on transporting fly fishermen to the most remote areas of Siberia to battle this fish.  Especially in Mongolia, recreational fishing has offered an economic alternative to poaching that protects Taimen in areas with little other development.  To ensure the health of recreational fisheries, anglers began directing funds to the conservation of Taimen and the streams they inhabit.  This has led to the establishment educational initiatives targeting Taimen conservation in Mongolia and the establishment of nearly 500 river miles of conservation land where only catch and release fly fishing is allowed (Bailey 2012; Adachi).  To promote local compliance with these efforts, conservationist have collaborated with Buddhist monks to ensure that both the Taimen and the streams it inhabits are protected in a culturally sensitive manner.

Are these conservation efforts enough to save the Siberian Taimen?  "This fish is not like other trout and salmon species," said Zeb Hogan, a fisheries biologist with the University of Reno in Nevada.  By bringing locals into the picture and offering them alternatives to development, pressures on local fisheries have been lessened.  In Mongolia this methodology is being followed through using catch and release fly fishing as an engine of low impact development that avoids overharvesting Siberian Taimen.  The efforts in Mongolia combining a local cultural affinity for streams, anglers actively invested in the persistence of their aquatic foe, and economic development that creates an alternative to activities that harm Taimen populations serves as a guide to effectively conserve endangered fisheries.  If similar efforts can be implemented throughout its range, the Siberian Taimen may rebound from the declines it currently faces.

References 

Adachi, Satoshi. “The Pacific’s Largest and Most Ancient Salmon Species.” WildSalmonCenter.com. 

Bailey, D. H. 2012.  Collaborative conservation of Taimen (Hucho taimen) through education and awareness Khovsgol Aimag Mongolia.  ScholarWorks at University of Montana.

Chandra, S., D. Gilroy, S. Purevdorj, and M. Erdenebat. 2005. The feeding behaviour of fish from the upper Lake Baikal watershed of the Eroo River in Mongolia. Mongolian J. Biol. Sci. 3(1): 39–45.

Dulmaa, A. 1999: Fish and fisheries in Mongolia. No. 385. Rome: FAO.

Hogan, Z., O. Jensen. 2013: Hucho taimen. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013 e.T188631A22605180. DOI: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013–1.RLTS.T188631A22605180.en.

Holcik, J., K. Hensel, J. Nieslanik, and L. Skacel. 1988. The Eurasian huchen, Hucho hucho, largest salmon of the world. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, Mass.

Ocock, J., G. Baasanjav, J. E. M. Baillie, M. Erbenebat, et al. 2006: Mongolian Red List of Fishes – Regional Red List Series. Zoological Society of London, London, vol. 3

Stubblefield, A., S. Chandra, S. Eagan, D. Tuvshinjargal, G. Davaadorzh, D. Gilroy, J. Sampson, J. Thorne, B. C. Allen, and Z. Hogan. 2005. Impacts of gold mining and land use alterations on the water quality of central Mongolian rivers. Integr. Environ. Assess. Manag. 1(4): 365–373.

Vander Zanden, M.J., L. N. Joppa, B. C. Allen, S. Chandra, D. Gilroy, Z. Hogan, J. T. Maxted, and J. Zhu. 2007. Modeling spawning dates of Hucho taimen in Mongolia to establish fishery management zones. Ecol. Appl. 17(8): 2281–2289.

Ten fish to try when you get bored with fish and chips, by Don Orth

What is the most consumed fish in the world?  If you guessed “Tuna,” then you are correct.  I think, probably.   But beyond Tuna, the most popular fish eaten depends on where you live.   Salmon, rohu, tilapia, cod, catfish, and trout are very popular, just not worldwide favorites. If you're from the Mid-Atlantic US you have likely tried Northern Snakehead, in Florida you have eaten the lionfish, Midwestern folks are learning to like or adapt to Asian Carp, and throughout North America we've been introduced to Basa, or Swai. Even if you have eaten sashimi, fish head soup, pickled herring, or caviar, it may be time for you to be more adventurous in your fish choices.  Here are ten top choices for your new fish bucket list.

10.  Lutefisk (LEWD-uh-fisk) is dried cod that has been soaked in a lye solution for several days.  This traditional dish is from Norway, Sweden, and parts of Finland.  But those in the old country do not eat it anymore. Rather it’s become a holiday treat for Scandinavian-Americans. In Scandinavia, cod were dried to preserve them for later consumption. The lutefisk origin story says that a drying rack filled with dried cod caught fire, leaving wood ashes (or lye) that changed the cod forever.  Lye is a caustic alkali that may raise the pH of the fish to 10!  Do not eat this.  To make the lutefisk edible, you must first soak the lutefisk in water to remove the lye. The soaked lutefisk is then gently poached or baked because of the jelly-like consistency.  It is an acquired taste, says the Norwegian bachelor farmer.  Others describe it as a foul and odiferous gooey fish with rancid oily taste.  Best served with lots of butter.  Uff da!

Lutefisk  Source

9. Surströmming.   If lutefisk is not an appealing fish for your bucket list, try Surströmming, which is soured herring, or its cousin Rakfisk a fermented trout. Herring, trout, and salmon are fatty fishes and drying is not an acceptable preservation method.  Fermentation, however, will preserve the fish indefinitely.

Surströmming  Source

Surströmming is only produced in northern Sweden where herring are harvested in spring, and gutted and salted.  They are then packed in barrels with a strong (17%) brine solution and allowed to ferment.  The pyloric caecum is left intact in the gutted fish. This provides proteolytic enzymes that facilitate a month-long fermentation.  The low temperatures (68̊ F) and brine are critical elements to the fermentation, which produces strong smelling acids.   It’s the smell of the surströmming that appeals to its proponents.  I mean, what else could there be to make this appealing?  Are you man enough to try it?  Closest I have gotten is watching others open a can; watch this video1 or this video2.  [Vomit Alert on video2!]

8.   Kusaya is similar to surstromming, but is a Japanese delicacy made by taking a fish like mackerel, soaking it in brine solution for a day, then laying it out in the sun for a few more days. Some kusaya makers pride themselves on having used the same brine over several generations to make their stinky fermented fish. Although the smell can be overpowering, the taste is actually quite mild.   Can't wait to try it. 

Kusaya is fermented mackerel.  Source

7.  Kæstur hákarl and Hongehoe are other versions of fermented fish.  The national disk of Iceland is the Kæstur hákarl, which is a fermented Greenland Shark.  The Greenland Shark has high content of urea and trimethylamine oxide, a mixture that facilitates osmoregulation.   However, after fermentation, the urea becomes ammonia and the hakarl has a fishy taste and an ammonia-rich smell. Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizzare Foods, described the smell as "some of the most horrific things I've ever breathed in my life."   In Korea, a skate is fermented to create a treat called Hongeohoe.  I’m told it’s edible as long as you don’t breathe. 

Hongeohoe is fermented skate.  Source

 6.  Shiokara is made from salted, fermented fish guts in a paste of malted rice. There are different varieties as you can imagine.  It can be made from whatever fish, squid, or other viscera were left over from the fishmongers shop.  This bucket list item must await travel to a specialized shiokara bar in Japan.  Tastes best when alternated with gulps of whiskey or sake.

Shiokara is salted, fermented fish guts in malted rice paste.  Source

5.  Salt cod is dried and salted so it will keep without refrigeration. When you take salt cod out of the box, you find it is hard and dry and covered in salt, not at all appealing. To make it edible again the salt cod is soaked in cold water—changing the water several times—for a couple of days until fully desalted and rehydrated.  Salt cod has a history in many countries. In Italy it's called baccalà, bacalao in Spain, morue in France, bacalhau in Portuguese, bakaliaro in Greece, saltfish in the Caribbean, and klippfisk in Scandinavian countries. The soaking process does work and the rehydrated cod can be used in any recipe calling for cod.  I recently made the Brandade de Morue recipe and can mark this one off my bucket list.  

4.  Gefilte fish are ground fish patties that were at one time stuffed back into the fish skin and baked. Gefilte fish is a Jewish tradition that later morphed into fish-shaped fish patties and even fish balls.  The gefilte fish, which is often carp, pike or whitefish, is poached in fish broth.  You can use the whole head of a large carp to make the jellied broth, or buy a prepared fish broth.  There are lots of options if you aren't planning to make it like your grandmother did. Gefilte fish is also available as a ready-to-eat product from Manischewitz. The Gefilte fish has morphed into many versions of fish meatballs.  Take ground fish (of any type), mixed with egg, breadcrumbs and herbs. Poach it very gently in salty water.

 3.  Shirako are cod sperm eaten in Japan. Romanians also eat carp milt, or Lapți, and the Russians eat herring milt, or Moloka.   Cooked or raw, fish sperm is also an acquired taste, so you may never know if you like it unless you try it.  

Shirako are cod sperm.  

 2.   Dried anchovy.   Ever eaten anchovies?   Anchovies are a healthy, sustainable food choice, that can be used in many recipes.   Cooking methods depend on their size.  Big ones are only a few inches long and are called "Dasi-myulchi" in Korean.  These are usually used for broth, while the small ones, called "Bokkeum-myulchi" are stir-fried for unique dishes. Dried anchovy can be also served without cooking as a snack. Try this spicy anchovies recipe for a snack, or Myeolchi-muchim  for a meal with rice and kimchi.     

Dried Anchovy.  Source

 And Number 1 on my bucket list? Fuguko Nuka-zuke is one rare delicacy that I haven't tried.  Fuguko Nuka-zuke are the pickled ovaries from the pufferfish.  Eating eggs of fish is much more commonplace than eating fish sperm, whether it's caviar or shad roe.  Nukazuke is a type of Japanese pickle, made by fermenting vegetables in rice bran (nuka) and fugu is Japanese for pufferfish.  How did anyone ever think to eat pufferfish ovaries?  Ovaries and other organs are filled with the deadly neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin!  Somehow the pickling process breaks down the deadly toxin.  Otherwise, the organs of the pufferfish can contain levels of tetrodotoxin sufficient to produce paralysis of diaphragm.  Do not try this one at home.

Fuguko Nuka-zuke, pickled ovaries from the pufferfish.  source

 

There are many more possibilities for your own bucket list.  You may wish to comment on this post to point out tasty items that I omitted.  I left off Ikizukuri, the practice of preparing sashimi from live seafood such as fish, shrimp or lobster.  Not raw, but live! I will say no more; I really cannot recommend that anyone try this.

The origins of many in the top ten are related to the fact that fish flesh spoils quickly.  Consequently, different cultures dried, salted, fermented fish between harvests before ice and refrigeration were widely available.  We don’t have to use these techniques today.  But we do because people find these foods interesting or tasty or both.

There are many good reasons to add more fish to your diet.  Eating more fish has been linked to lowered risk of depression, heart disease, and brain health in high-risk individuals (Marckmann and Grønbaek 1999; Morris et al. 2003; Li and Zhang 2015).  Fish provide the opportunity for a highly diverse, healthy, and interesting diet.  If you don’t like my fish bucket list, then write your own. Or you can eat bugs! 

References

Li, F., X. Liu, and D. Zhang. 2015.  Fish consumption and risk of depression: a meta-analysis.  Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health doi:10.1136/jech-2015-206278

Marckmann, P. and M. Grønbaek. 1999.  Fish consumption and coronary heart disease mortality. A systematic review of prospective cohort studies.  European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 53(8):585-590. DOI: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600832

Morris, M.C., D.A. Evans, J.L. Bienias, C.C. Tangney, D. A. Bennett, R.S. Wildon, N. Aggarwal, and J. Schneider. 2003.  Consumption of fish and n-3 fatty acids and risk of incident Alzheimer disease.  Archives Neurology 60:940-946.

Morris, M.C., J. Brockman, J.A. Schneider, Y. Wang, D.A. Bennett, C.C. Tangney, and O. van de Rest. 2016. Association of seafood consumption, brain mercury level, and APOE ε4 status with brain neuropathology in older adults.  Journal of the American Medical Association 315(5) doi:10.1001/jama.2015.19451