Seafood

Seafood is any form of sea life that people regard as food, above all fish and shellfish. It supplies an essential share of the animal protein eaten by millions of people, especially in coastal areas, and its history goes back to the earliest communities that lived beside the sea and rivers.

History

Harvesting, processing and eating seafood are very ancient practices, with archaeological evidence reaching back into the Palaeolithic. Finds in a sea cave at Pinnacle Point, in South Africa, indicate that Homo sapiens was gathering marine life around 165,000 years ago, and Neanderthals on the Mediterranean coast appear to have eaten shellfish at about the same time. In East Asia, isotopic analysis of the remains of Tianyuan man, who lived some 40,000 years ago, shows that he regularly ate freshwater fish. Shell middens known as køkkenmøddinger, discarded fish bones and cave paintings all suggest that these foods were vital to survival.

The first permanent settlements, such as Lepenski Vir in present-day Serbia, were almost always linked to fishing as a main source of food. In ancient Egypt, the Nile teemed with fish, and fresh and dried fish formed a staple for much of the population. Tomb scenes and papyrus documents show fishing equipment and methods, and some images hint that fishing was also pursued as a pastime. Fishing rarely appears in ancient Greek art, a reflection of the low social standing of fishermen. Even so, Oppian of Anazarba wrote the Halieutika between 177 and 180, the earliest surviving treatise on sea fishing. Sardines and anchovies were a regular part of the diet in Athens, often salted. A stele from the late third century BCE, found at Akraiphia in Boeotia, lists fish prices: the cheapest was the skaren, while Atlantic bluefin tuna cost three times as much.

In Rome, some luxury fish took on an almost theatrical role. The red mullet was prized for the bright red of its scales as it died out of water, so it was sometimes left to die slowly at the table, a custom that faded at the start of the imperial era. In the Middle Ages seafood had less prestige than meat and was eaten mainly on fast days, though it was the mainstay of many coastal populations. Fish was salted, dried and smoked to keep, and stockfish, cod beaten with a mallet before soaking, was very common. Herring from the North Sea reached markets as far away as Constantinople in the form of kippers. Inland, especially in Central Europe, fish was far more expensive than meat. Today, a better understanding of the reproductive cycles of aquatic species has driven hatcheries, fish farming and aquaculture, while a clearer grasp of the risks of raw or undercooked fish and shellfish has improved preservation and processing.

Culture

Seafood plays very different roles from one region to another. Japan, Iceland and Portugal are among the countries that eat the most per head, and in many coastal communities fish and shellfish form the basis of daily meals and of the local economy. In everyday speech they are often set apart from meat, although they are animal foods too, which is why they are excluded from a vegetarian diet while a pescatarian diet admits them. The range is vast: more than 33,000 fish species have been described, along with many more marine invertebrates, though only a small number are regularly eaten. Molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, cephalopods such as octopus and squid, crustaceans such as shrimp, crabs and lobster, and echinoderms such as sea urchins all belong to this tradition. Edible seaweeds, very present in Asian cooking, complete the picture of what the sea offers the table.

Religious traditions have shaped how seafood is eaten. In Islam, dietary rules generally allow seafood, although some schools of law exclude eels, frogs, crocodiles or certain bottom-dwelling fish. Jewish Kashrut forbids shellfish and eels, which the Old Testament treats as an abomination. In Christianity, the ban on eating meat during Lent encouraged the consumption of fish. In the United States, the Catholic custom of abstaining from meat on Fridays in Lent popularised the Friday fish fry, which many parishes still host, and in predominantly Catholic areas numerous restaurants add seafood to their menus during those weeks.

Today fish and shellfish are also matters of health and trust. They are widely recommended as part of a regular diet, and the combination of oily and white fish provides omega-3 fatty acids, iodine and zinc, although large predatory fish accumulate mercury. Mislabelling is a persistent problem: a 2013 study by the organisation Oceana found that one third of the seafood sampled in the United States was labelled incorrectly, and substituting a cheaper species for a more expensive one is the most common form of fraud. Sustainability is also a concern. A 2006 study published in the journal Science warned that about a third of the world's fish stocks had collapsed, although later research suggests that good management can revive depleted stocks and return them to commercial use.

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