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Do Farmed Striped Bass Go Easy On The Environment?

Naotake Murayama
Striped bass roasted with fennel and herbs. (CC BY 2.0)

Greg describes stumbling upon a find at a local store: whole striped bass, cleaned, scaled and packed that day. From his early years in China, Greg has been fond of steamed whole fish, but can't usually find small whole fish in supermarkets. "I bought one, went home and checked immediately at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch website, to see whether farmed sea bass earns "best choice" status." To his relief, it does. Most American farmed hybrid striped bass ponds don't discharge a lot of effluent into surrounding water or put wild fish at risk by transferring disease.

Preparation: Greg placed the ring from a spring form baking pan inside a lidded stovetop roasting pan and boiled two inches of water inside. Rinsing and drying the fish, he scored it to the bone in three places on each side, to speed up cooking. Adding salt, sherry, shredded green onions and shredded ginger to both sides of the fish, he placed it on a plate on top of the ring in the roaster. After ten minutes of cooking, Greg checked the thickest part of the fish, beside the bone, where some pink flesh indicated that it wasn't completely cooked. After two more minutes, the fish was done. Greg drained the juices from the plate and served it with rice and a sauce made of minced ginger, soy sauce and vinegar. (Lemon juice can be substituted for vinegar. If you prefer a thicker sauce, add some hoisin sauce.)

Tilapia, catfish and some prawns and trout are among other "Best Choices" farmed fish mentioned at Seafood Watch.

(Broadcast: "The Food Guys," 4/26/15. Listen weekly on the radio at 11:50 a.m. Sundays, or via podcast.)

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