I'm never eating seafood again!

I'm a little late on this news, but I just had to share: Seafood is evidently not safe to eat unless you catch it with your own two hands!

By "not safe to eat seafood," i mean it's probably safe to eat, but if you order it at a restaurant or buy it in a grocery store you may not be getting the type of fish advertised. According to some recent investigative journalism by the Boston Globe, fish mislabeling is rampant in Boston-area retailers. It's not just Boston though--other studies have found the same is the case around the country as well.

While some substitutions are relatively innocuous, for example Pacific cod in exchange for New England cod, others sound much more terrifying. Chew on this, for instance:

In 2007, two customers at a Chicago restaurant were hospitalized after eating a toxin found in puffer fish. They had ordered monkfish.

That same year, a large shipment of escolar from Indonesia was labeled Atlantic cod and exported to Hong Kong. More than 600 people reportedly fell ill after eating it. Consumption of escolar can cause severe gastrointestinal problems because of the type of oil it contains.

I know, gross, right? Wikipedia claims that escolar can cause keriorrhea, which "is similar to diarrhea, only the body will expel yellowish-orange drops of oil instead of liquid bowel movements." Wow, that's just what I want to get when I order cod. (Pardon me while I gag.)

According to an unsubstantiated claim made in the Globe article, "at some restaurants, chefs call fish anything their imagination conjures, disguising the identity with sauces and spices." Really?? Well, if that's true* then I think it's safe to say: It's a conspiracy!** Totally time to panic and stop eating seafood.

*It's probably not.
**You will all be pleased to note that I refrained from making a joke about "something fishy going on here." You're welcome for that.

***

So I wrote most of that a few weeks ago, but never really got around to finishing. Things have been insanely busy over here; I've been travelling a lot (Vegas two weeks ago, Los Angeles this week), there was a freak snow storm, work has been hectic, and I've actually working on my dissertation...among other things. Which is all to say, blogging might be slow for a while. Please bear with me.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to go breathe in some of that famous LA smog. Oh, Los Angeles. How I have not missed you.