FRESH-WATER FISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 22, 26 January 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

FRESH-WATER FISH.

VALUED IN EARLIER DAYS. SOME ROYAL, DISHES. STILL POPULAR ON CONTINENT. To those whose interest in freshwater iishes extends beyond their mere capture with rod and line, their presentday neglect as a food supply is a matter for regret, says a writer in the London '"Observer."

This neglect, he goes 011 to say, is the more to be deplored when one considers how far they have fallen froiji their former high estate. To-dav in England only the Jews of the East End are consumers of fresh-water fish, and they almost wholly rely upon the Continent for their supplies.

No one who has travelled in Holland can have failed to be impressed by the vast fresh-water fish resources of that land. Every town and hamlet of any size has its several large fish shops, which consist of a- series of large iron cages suspended from the sides of a floating stage, in the centre of which stands the shop proper.

The housewife reaches this emporium via a gang-plank, and the salesman simply nets carp, tench, pike, or whatever she may fancy from the iron cradles in which the fish are graded according to size and species. In France and Italy fresh-wnter fishes are likewise fattened for the market on the grand scale. In Medieval Times. The literature of a few centuries ago deals widely with the subjeet-of coarse fish as a food supply, and it is of interest to recall how in medieval times Thames-side fishermen actually employed tame cormorants to catch the fish in the same manner as these birds are used to-day in China and Japan.

Fish conservation began no doubt in the monasteries, the chief seats of learning and the first precursors of scientific research. In the middle ages every castle kept itr? moat well stocked with food fish, not merely as a source of sustenance during the period of fast, but as a very practicable standby in times

of siege. The last big efforts in fresh-water fish cons.ervancy as regards the private individual were made by the lauded gentry of a century or two ago, and such efforts survive only on a very reduced scale to the present day. One fears the average angler's interest to-day stops short at bringing t.ie catch safely to the landing net. Izaak Walton, however, had wider views, and one of his chapters in his immortal work is devotod to the "laying out of fish ponds and how to order them." The ponds of his days were built up most elaborately of clay and wood interlarded and the banks were supported with a wealth of trees. Save amongst a very small portion of the population there is a general feeling nowadays that fresh-water fi?h, with the exception of the members of the salmon family, are muddy, insipid and otherwise unpalatable. While few compare with the best sea fish, it may bo urged that much of this prejudice has its roots in our indifference or inability properly to prepare the harvest of our ponds and rivers for the dinner table. A Carp Dish. Certainly few can find time or patience to prepare carp as advocated by "The Compleat Angler." The fish was to be stufl'ed with sweet"marjoram,; thyme, parsley, rosemary, savory, onions, oysters, eggs and anchovies and boiled in claret. Pike was the boil bouehe par excellence, and after a vastly more elaborate preparation even than that devoted to the carp, was ad-

judged "a dish of meat too good for any but anglers or very honest men." The carp is still much appreciated on the Continent and in America. Being very hardy, this fish can travel for some hours packed in damp weeds, and will survive weeks incarcerated in block? of ice. In America they arc to-day thus transported on a commercial scale. The fishes are first placed in containers of water into which oxygen under pressure has been introduced.

After being kept a few degrees above freezing point for two or three days they are then frozen solid. The blocks of ice in which the fish are embedded are then removed from the containers, surrounded by heat-insulating packing, and under such conditions are transported long distances or kept in cold storage until. wanted.