November/December 2009 Issue

Extreme Makeover: Seafood Edition

Marketers gave these former trash fish new names—and transformed them from gross to gourmet.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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NEW NAME

OLD NAME

STORY

Orange roughy

Slimehead

Originally named for its mucus-covered head

Torbay sole

Witch

Renamed by UK grocer Marks & Spencer after a picturesque English bay

Rock salmon/hass

Spiny dogfish

The result of an $8.5 million ’70s campaign to rebrand “underutilized species”

Silverbrite salmon

Chum salmon/dog salmon

One of the cheapest kinds of salmon, it has canine-like fangs.

Peekytoe crab

Rock crab

Considered essentially worthless till the mid-’90s; now the darling of trendy restaurants

Scarlet snapper

South African hake, Malabar blood snapper

“Anything that is red is going to be sold as red snapper, no matter what it is,” says one restaurant supplier.

Blue cod

Oilfish

Like escolar, oilfish is known for its laxative effect.

Source: Marine Policy

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Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

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