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Friends, I’d like to share a new writing project I’ve started, called Better Know a Fish!
Better Know a Fish!
Ever since my very first pet fish (two swordtails and tiger barbs in a large jar… no they did not live long), I’ve been a huge fan of our finned friends. I admire the freedom that fish have as they swim and maneuver underwater, as if weightless. I’m fascinated by their tremendous diversity, and their contributions to our own species and society — even if they are frequently overlooked in favor of things feathered and furred.
As I write in the blog’s introduction, “Why Get to Know a Fish?”:
And now for something completely different on this blog…
The eyed-side (L) and the blind-side (R) fillets of a southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) caught off of North Carolina. Image: Ben Young Landis
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00:00 — Preheat the oven to 400F. Move oven rack to the bottom-most slot. Spread foil over broiling pan.
00:30 – Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of oil onto foil. Take flounder fillets with your hand and dip onto oil, spreading the oil evenly over the fillets. Take care to flip fillets to rub oil both sides of fillets. Apply a touch more oil if necessary.
When finished, lay fillets on foil skin down (see photo). And wash your hands.
*If you’ve never cooked fish before, take the back of a fork and press it down lightly onto a fillet. Feel how the meat gives to the pressure, and its lightly rubbery texture. Remember this feeling when you check the meat for doneness later.
01:30 — Grind fresh black pepper and sprinkle over fillets. Don’t over do it.
02:00 — Take your bag of leftover corn chips. Use your hands to smash chips into tiny crumbs by crushing the bag bottom. Take any pent-up frustration out on the chips. Call it names. Periodically check inside bag to see if crumbs are getting tinier.
03:00 — Sprinkle chip crumbs evenly over fillets. Sprinkle densely, but don’t pile up the crumbs. Every crumb should be touching the fillet, not layered up.
Durham residents brave cold winter rain to get their Walking Fish delivery. Image credit: Ben Young Landis
Up and down the East Coast, something fishy is happening in local communities. People gathering at Harvard University to pick up freshly caught cod and pollock. A truck pulling up to an inland Maine church to deliver shrimp from nearby Port Clyde.
It’s all part of a movement called “community supported fisheries,” or CSF for short. Riding on the wave of the local food movement, CSFs are being billed as a solution to bring more income to struggling fishing communities while educating their urban customers on the quality and diversity of affordable, local seafood. With media coverage from the Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post, CSF is now a new buzzword in town.
Community supported fisheries have a surprisingly young history, one that shows how whole communities — commercial anglers, neighborhood organizers, academics, students — have found themselves working on common ground.
Reading the Journal and the Post, you might think the story begins far away in the cold waters of Massachusetts and Maine. But surprisingly, it all started with a North Carolina Fishery Resource Grant project…
Click for full PDF
The Marine Aquaculture Research Center (MARC) opened in December 2009. I produced this map for Dr. Marc Turano at North Carolina Sea Grant, who will also be a core researcher at the center. (I also covered the opening ceremony; see photos.)
The original map image is taken from the U.S. Census Bureau’s OnTheMap web GIS tool. This is a really handy, free resource for simple geospatial data layers, and a decent alternative to Google Maps for source maps to capture and manipulate.
The screen captures were tweaked in Adobe Photoshop, then traced in Adobe Illustrator. Final layout was done in Illustrator.
