My Adventures: MLK Day Fish Cleaning Demo

1.30.09

This year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 19, President Obama called each and every American to serve their nation by participating in some form of community service. Rather than a day off, this "day on" turned out to be the largest King Day of Service ever. According to www.mlkday.gov, Americans helped with over 13,000 community service projects this year; that's twice as many as were carried out in 2008. President Obama set an example as he helped paint the walls of a homeless shelter in Chicago. His wife, Michelle Obama, worked on an assembly line where she filled bags with toiletries for overseas troops.

As an AmeriCorps member, I was asked to be a part of this "day on". We had two options: (1) we could join an already existing community service project or (2) we could organize our own. Krissy and I thought it would be exciting to hold an educational workshop where the community could learn how to properly clean a locally caught fish. This may not seem like a problem, but over the past 100 years, the Buffalo Niagara region has hosted a great deal of unregulated industrial growth. This might have had a positive economic health of the city, but without measures to ensure environmental health, habitats in the region were compromised. Please note that I'm not implying that economic growth leads to environmental destruction. On the contrary, there have been many examples where economic and environmental health have grown together due to practices that address common issues. Take German Wind Power for example. Germany provides 80% of the world's wind power as is benefiting financially from a form of renewable power, as oppose to oil, which is non-renewable. Also, fisherman initially frowned upon New Zealand's establishment of government supported wildlife sanctuaries. However, regulations limiting the number of fish caught in these areas has been shown to increase long-term supply of sea life because these fish are no longer threatened by overfishing.

So to make a long history short, even though our lakes and streams in the Buffalo region are beginning to bounce back, many of the heavy metals that have been deposited in them are still present. These chemicals make their way into fish and wildlife that many local fisherman and hunters enjoy. For our project, Krissy and I worked with the Buffalo Museum of Science to develop a workshop for the sole purpose of educating the public about (1) what chemicals may be found in their locally caught fish and (2) how they can prepare (clean and cook) their fish so that they reduce their risk of consuming these chemicals. There were two sessions with about 20-30 people at each. The sessions included: a short presentation on fish advisories and fish cleaning/cooking techniques (given by me), a fish cleaning demonstration (given by my Uncle Rob and his friend Kenny), a fish cleaning session where people could come up and actually cut a fish, and a fish cooking demonstration (given by Deb, Krissy's sister-in-law to be).

Besides our demonstration, we also set up a Riverkeeper table with information about our organization. My supervisor, Kerri, is explaining how rain barrels are important to conserving water and keeping the Great Lakes clean. You can see the dark green rain barrel in the middle of the picture.

I'm giving a short presentation on fish advisories and how to properly clean and cook your locally caught fish.

My Uncle Rob is standing on the left holding the lake trout he caught especially for this demonstration. On the right you can see Kenny pointing to the corresponding fish picture.

Most chemicals such as dioxin and PCBs accumulate in the fat and skin of the fish. Whereas mercury is found in the fish's flesh--the part that we eat. Therefore, eating less fish is the only way to reduce your risk of consuming mercury. The lateral line, like the fat and skin, should also be removed. In the picture above, my Uncle Rob is removing the lateral line from the newly the lake trout he just finished filleting.

Lake Trout With the Lateral Line Removed

My uncle typically smokes the lake trout that he catches. Here, Kenny is passing out some of the smoked trout. It was a big hit with the kids; they all thought it tasted like bologna.

I volunteered my friend Shelley to be the first to learn how to properly fillet a fish.

Eight Little White Perch: From left to right: DocFishy, SleepyFishy, GrumpyFishy, SneezyFishy, DopeyFishy, HappyFishy, BashfulFishy, and NamelessFishy*.

Before you begin filleting your fish, be sure to sharpen your fillet knife. The sharper your knife, the easier this whole process will be. The first step is to take your fillet knife and insert it in the gill slot behind the head. Holding the knife at a 45 degree angle gently cut down until you feel the knife blade come in contact with the spinal cord. Once you have made contact with the spinal cord rotate the knife around so the blade is facing the fin. Holding the knife blade parallel to the cutting board, gently slide the knife back and forth along the backbone until you reach the tail. Filleting is a very difficult skill to develop so do not get frustrated if you fail to create a clean cut on the first time. Practice makes perfect!

Here, you can see the fish with one side filleted. You may also notice that all the innards are still intact. After this point, you should flip the fish over and repeat the fillet cut from the gill slot behind the head. When you are finished with the second fillet, you can also trim away all the fat and the lateral line (if necessary). These perch are so small that fat and lateral line trimming is not necessary. Be sure to discard the innards of the fish because contaminants may also be stored in the fish's organs.

Above, Deb prepares the fillets by brushing them with olive oil and sprinkling them with a little salt and pepper. She will then put them in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Rob and Kenny said that these little fillets are often battered, fried, and called "Poor Man's Shrimp".