24/08/2007 - How the media gets it all mixed up

WEEKEND FEATURE: How the media gets it all mixed up

WORLDWIDE
Friday, August 24, 2007, 23:50 (GMT + 9)


In a recent feature story published in The Independent, a well known and well-respected daily newspaper of the media house Independent News and Media Limited, an excessive amount of misinformation was reported, demonstrating a clear lack of knowledge regarding the industry of fishery and aquaculture and the whole business of seafood in general.

Journalists Rob Sharp, Julia Stuart, and John Walsh -a qualified team of authors- of the feature story: The great zebu con – and other restaurant swindles, show a disgregard for the seafood, through several blunders, demonstrating their negligent way of obtaining knowledge and reporting it to the public. This is quite common in today's information-chocked age, where oft times even urban legends, because they are in print, are taken as fact. Today's press has lowered the bar on clear and factual reporting, leading many to believe, that when a wide-circulation paper such as The Independent, shows a disregard for news, there are few reliable sources to turn to. Shouldn't we be expecting more?

Ripped off by restaurants
The feature article is about how Britons are being ripped off by restaurants not serving what their menus promise in print. The team of journalists calls the rip off a scandal, but their lack of knowledge, demonstrated by their information, is more scandalous -and one perpetrated by them- than mislabeling or misrepresenting what consumers eat. One of the journalists writes that he has had a brief career as a restaurant critic, the brevity of which is reflected indeed by what he reports.

John Walsh starts off his attack of disguised seafood products in a careful way, showing that he is able to identify a scallop from a scallop or a bluefin tuna from a bluefin tuna depending on how it is caught. If it looks like the one sold in the supermarket Sainsbury's, it is logically not caught by diving or longlining. He may be right, but one wonders, how he can distinguish the one from the other.

Walsh writes: " I've been offered "diver-gathered" scallops and "line-caught bluefin tuna" wholly indistinguishable from the kind you get in Sainsbury’s. I'm not saying the waiters or the menus were lying through their teeth, but it's clear that they often are. So much of the scrupulously "sourced" ingredients are nothing of the sort.”

Julia Stuart then reports on her interview with Bjorn Van der Horst, a chef patron of Gordon Ramsay's La Noisette restaurant, who explains: It's difficult to tell if a restaurant is swizzing you. One thing to look for is the price. If they are selling wild line-caught fish, and it's cheap bass or turbot, you should be suspicious. Wild turbot costs between GBP 20 and GBP 25 a kilo and – knowing that there's about 60 per cent waste on that fish – if a portion doesn't cost between GBP 25 to GBP 30 then they're either selling it at a loss, or it's not wild turbot."

My own guess is that next time of Gordon Ramsay's La Noisette restaurant offers on it menu a line-caught turbot, something fishy could be up. Turbot for commercial use is not caught either by longlining or hand line.

Sea bass or not?
”Once cooked, the prime fillet of sea bass can be hard to identify – and there are many look-alikes, imposter species being dressed up as the original. Among the counterfeit fish recently identified in Britain's kitchens by local authorities were the Patagonian toothfish – itself threatened by overfishing – which is often sold under the moniker of "sea bass", despite bearing little resemblance to the fish in the wild,” he states.

Maybe the reason for this fish being called sea bass is that it is imported as Chilean sea bass. There is not much profit in substituting Patagonian toothfish and sea bass.

Scampi or not scampi
The journalists also attempt to show their knowledge about scampi: “It's common for eateries to pass off scampi tails glued together with additives as "scampi" pieces. They can even be minced scampi that has been breaded. This is “reformed scampi"."

They should probably look closer into what really is called scampi and what is not. Restaurateurs all over Europe misuse this name. Large shrimp from all over the world, wild of farmed, are passed on as scampi, though are never even close to being scampi. And the small pieces glued together are in most cases not scampi, but shrimp. British food writers, journalists, and chefs have been using the name scampi in unconscious way for years.

“Scampi is the plural of scampo, the Italian name for the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus), also known as the Dublin Bay prawn (especially in Ireland and the U.K.) and langoustine (the French name). The name is used loosely both in Italy and elsewhere, though in Britain, food labelling laws define "scampi" as Nephrops norvegicus.” (Source: Wikipedia).

Not only does media do it injustice. There are thousands and thousands of cases of mislabeling by the seafood industry itself. Some Norwegian exporters of rainbow trout farmed in saltwater still promote it as “salmon trout”. The fish with this name is a North American species. Rainbow trout is a trout, and if a container of this species tries to enter the United States under the guise of being “salmon trout” the container risks being stopped at the border. But most of us accept that “salmon trout” sounds better than “rainbow trout” or trout.


Albatross line-caught by ugly trawler
”"Line-caught" conjures up images of an artisanal fisher with a rod. What it actually means is that an ugly great trawler has crossed the ocean with several hundred yards of nylon and hooks hanging out the back, indiscriminately killing all sea life as well as the occasional albatross. Even then, line-caught fish is more expensive than farmed or netted alternatives, since it is normally fresher and its flesh firmer. Most consumers cannot taste the difference, and an estimated five per cent is mislabeled by disreputable outlets or suppliers,” the feature article explains.

However, “A trawler is a fishing vessel designed for the purpose of operating a trawl, a type of fishing net that is dragged along the bottom of the sea (or sometimes above the bottom at a specified depth)”. (Source: Wikipedia)

So now we all know that line caught fish are caught by "ugly great trawlers." Seen as one of the most selective fishing methods, the journalists still purport that this fishery gear indiscriminately kills all sealife, and even causes incidental seabird catches. It is disturbing news that “trawlers” catching the "odd albatross" can deliver fresher seafood than fish farms.

In fact the seabird albatross does not inhabit the North Atlantic. Only a handful of observations have been made of its presence there. If Scottish and English fish farms are delivering less fresh fish than products received from the southern hemisphere or the Northern Pacific, they have severe problems of being slow with their logistics. The same goes for if they are slower in bringing their produce to the market than long-liners operating out of British harbours.

It is to be appreciated that the press is focusing on seafood substitutions and swindles, but it would be great to see this done by journalists with a minimum of understanding of the seafood industry and how it operates.

Why this lack of knowledge?
Journalists use language as a tool. The right choice of words makes a story more interesting, much like the right fishing gear will bring in a better catch. In their quest to catch the attention of their target audience, they may risk some important details that later can wreak havoc, much as a bottom trawl across the ocean bottom, with its indiscrimination.

Journalists and public relations people with an agenda, promoting a set of views on behalf of themselves, a organisation, or a company, often choose to show bias in their writing, and do not try to present any different point of view. This is common practice, and questionable, however, as long as they do not do it under disguise of neutral journalism it is acceptable. It is not acceptable that journalists representing a wide-circulation independent newspapers like The Independent forget to go their homework.

The name of a product also results in trade policies and protectionism. The North Americans have decided that only their species of catfish is allowed to be named catfish in their markets. Basa from Vietnam cannot be called catfish, which is supposed to make it clearer for consumers. But what is wrong with calling the same fish in the US and Vietnam as "catfish?" There is clearly a political slant. Not only does the seafood industry sometimes disguise what they are selling but journalists then mix up names because of a lack of knowledge, of both politics and the nature of the seafood industry.

Even those who should know often are not interested in using correct labels or names. Laks og Vildtcentralen, established in 1930 is one of Norway’s leading retailers and wholesalers of imported high quality seafood and they call imported black tiger shrimp scampi of course. And they are one of many thousands of seafood companies worldwide that disregard the correct use of product names.

So how can the seafood industry complain about journalists getting it wrong, when they don't have it very clear themselves? Until the seafood industry begins to get things right, they cannot expect the media to correct their errors, only report them. And bass will be a different bass, and a trawler will fish with longlines and scampi will be a term not just for nephrops but also any large shrimp.

And, yes, journalists will continue to behave like experts who can pick a scallop hand picked from the sea by a diver, from a scallop scooped up by a longline, or, sorry, was that a purse seiner? Not that would be for bluefin tuna... oh well.

Note from the writer:
This writer takes responsibility for his own mistakes, and his views do not necessarily express those of FIS.com. However, as journalists, we all must try to learn our mistakes and bridge the gap of what is information and what is heresay.

By Terje Engoe
www.fis.com