Jellyfish. (Photo: Alberto Romeo CC BY 3.0)
The British encouraged to consume jellyfish
UNITED KINGDOM
Saturday, April 21, 2018, 01:30 (GMT + 9)
The Marine Conservation Society has urged the British to start eating jellyfish in order to help save the UK's dwindling fish stocks.
The plea comes as the UK has experienced an influx of thousands of jellyfish washing up on its shores in recent years.
However, experts in the field recognise the British are too conservative in their palates to accept the change from traditionally eaten fish to jellyfish, which has been a staple in Asian cuisine for centuries,
Besides, many people have expressed concern about the destructive and poisonous reputation the resource has. It must be recalled that in 2014, jellyfish raided a Scottish farm and killed 300,000 fish overnight. They are also capable of shutting down power stations and have wreaked havoc in the Mediterranean sea, The Express reported.
However, cuisine specialists highlight that boiling jellyfish with lemon and vinegar for a few minutes and then plunging them into ice sterilises the fish gets rid of bacteria and destroys the sting that holds poison.
“We need to adapt, to turn this problem into an opportunity. We started to analyse the chemical composition of jellyfish in the Mediterranean and realised that they were similar to the ones eaten in the far east. So we thought: Why don’t we try to eat them?," pointed out Stefano Piraino, a zoology professor at the University of Salento.
In his opinion, another advantage the resource has is that in terms of sustainability their stocks cannot be depleted like other ocean fish, which is a win-win situation, as they are born from polyps fixed onto the bottom of the sea.
Piraino highlights that as for its taste, jellyfish taste slightly salty and have a delicate, chewy texture. In addition, they retain a hard texture when cooked so they could be used in fish and chips, instead of cod or haddock.
Last month, researchers from the University of Southern Denmark developed a way to make jellyfish chips which had a crunchy texture.
Pirano said: “We need to train fishermen so we can get some value from this unused biomass.”
For his part, Dr Peter Richardson, head of ocean recovery at the Marine Conservation Society, said a move towards Brits eating jellyfish could help save dwindling numbers of traditionally eaten fish.
"Jellyfish are a good potential source of sustainable fish and if Brits started eating them instead of heavily farmed varieties it could be a very good thing. However, Brits are very conservative in their palates so they would take some convincing!,” Richardson concluded.
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