Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: UMass placing sustainable fisheries professor at Hodgkins Cove

December 21, 2017 — The University of Massachusetts at Amherst embarked on recasting the role of its Gloucester Marine Station at Hodgkins Cove by hiring Gloucester resident Katie Kahl to serve as the liaison between research elements at the school and the Cape Ann community.

The university’s School of Earth and Sustainability is set to formally announce the appointment of Kahl on Thursday to the newly created position of extension assistant professor in sustainable fisheries and coastal resilience.

“I’m really excited and can’t wait to start,” Kahl said Wednesday. “This is really a great opportunity for the university to re-imagine its role at the Gloucester Marine Station.” Kahl’s mission, which begins Jan. 2, is a new one for the university’s research facility.

The university announced last January that it was establishing a permanent, full-time extension faculty position at the Gloucester Marine Station as the focal point for determining the future role of the facility.

Most recently, it housed the university’s Large Pelagics Research Center, which was nicknamed the “Tuna Lab.” Under the guidance of Molly Lutcavage, the center did internationally groundbreaking research on giant bluefin tuna and other highly migratory pelagic species.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

UMass’s award-winning dining halls serving up tasty dogfish as chefs reject ‘trash fish’ moniker

January 27, 2017 — AMHERST, Mass. — It may not have the tastiest name, but a University of Massachusetts chef says dogfish is becoming a popular fish on campus.

All the dining commons serve the fish — 400 to 500 pounds of it — as part of a fish fry every Friday night.

Bob Bankert, chef de cuisine for UMass Dining, said UMass began seeking alternatives to cod several years ago, and began serving dogfish in the fall.

“Cod is way over fished,” Bankert said.

Before arriving at dogfish, the dining halls also began serving other so-called “trash fish” such as pollock and redfish.

But Bankert rejects the “trash fish” moniker — born from the practice of fisherman tossing such species out instead of bringing them to market — and instead calls fish like dogfish “under loved.”

Bankert said people don’t have problems with the idea of eating catfish — but some balk at the name “dogfish.”

A spiny dogfish swims along a stretch of sandy seafloor. UMass-Amherst serves the fish during a weekly fish fry. Matthew Lawrence, NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Dogfish — a shark species also known as “cape shark” — is native to New England waters. But, about 90 percent of the harvest has been sent to England for that country’s fish and chips, Bankert said.

He’s hoping that through word of mouth and focus on the fish, more people will try it and be able to find it at markets.

Read the full story at MassLive