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Yankee Pier: All About Halibut!
Halibut is a fish that everyone is familiar with. That sweet, flaky, melt-in-the-mouth fish has caught eyes on menus for nearly a hundred years. And long before, Native Americans were snacking on the snow-white meat. And with it being halibut season again, it’s popping up just about everywhere. But what do we know about it? And what’s the difference between the different types of halibut, Pacific and Atlantic primarily?
Halibut is a flatfish, one of the largest overall fish on the planet, growing more than eight feet long and weighing over seven hundred pounds. In the family of ‘right-eye’ flounders, they are born with one eye on each side, but end up with one migrating to the other, similar to other flounders. Their top side is dark, easily camouflaging itself against the view of the ocean floor, while their underside is pale, emulating the sky above, making for voracious predators and uneasy prey.
They can live on sand, gravel or clay bottoms (from a few meters to hundreds of meters deep) and are often found close to the shore. The first year of life, they eat mainly plankton, but as they increase in age and size, they begin to feed on small shrimp and fish. At full size, they eat a variety of crabs, squid, clam and fish, even other halibut.
Commercial fishing for halibut began in the late 1800’s, with company steamers sending out dories (small, two person rowboats) to do the fishing, which led to larger, schooner-style boats with multiple deckhands. The actual fishing is done by the “long-line” method, consisting of leaded ground lines at great lengths with tiny baited hooks along them called “skates” tied together in sets and laid on the ocean floor by anchors, covering a large area, pulled in by hydraulic force, allowing for tremendous amounts of halibut to be fished at one time.
Unfortunately, this excessive fishing in northern Atlantic waters, from Labrador and Greenland to Iceland and the Bay of Biscay, let alone the stragglers on the east coast of the United States left us with a formerly very important food fish endangered and no longer a safe bet in the wild. Because of this, many countries have started participating in Atlantic halibut aquaculture (Canada, Norway, the UK, Chile), but with all the factors in making fish farming safe and manageable, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and Greenpeace both rated the species endangered and on the “Red List.”
Pacific halibut, on the other hand, caught in the Northern Pacific Ocean all along the west coast (from California to Alaska, where 75% of US halibut comes from), the east coast, the Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands and Hokkaido, Japan, gets a green light all the way. The International Pacific Halibut Commission manages and regulates the populations via a treaty between the US and Canada, to allow for maximum sustainable halibut yield. Because of this, it is a highly prized (and often expensive) food fish, especially during its March-November fishing season. Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch deems this species a “Best Choice.”
Because of its firm but flaky flesh and sweet, mild taste, halibut can be cooked in a number of ways successfully, delicate enough to be grilled or pan-roasted and yet robust enough to be deep fried or thrown into a stew or chowder. Its taste is very subtle and clean, requiring very little seasoning. A squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of fleur de sel is often optimal when the fish is at its freshest.
Eat fresh, eat local, always!
