A Fishy Talk

A fishy talk it is but not on species talk but on fish as a food. Fish are not only food to us humans but also to other species existing on this planet. Since the world is covered with more sea than land, fish had already embed as an important diet in our lives although many people still do not eat fish.

Culinary delight of smoked salmon

Japanese culinary of raw fish dish

Fish, especially those living in saltwater contains high amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids which are good nutrition to the body as well as serving good for the heart. This means a regular diet of fish gives a substantial amount of nutrition needed to reduce cardiovascular diseases according to nutritionist over the years. Researchers had also prove that fish is great for the skin. Furthermore, modern days of society nutritionists suggest that fish to be consumed about 2-3 times a week.

Omega-3 fatty acid (ALA)

Omega-3 fatty acid (DHA)

Omega-3 fatty acid (EPA)

Fishes such as salmon has proved to give nutritional values especially to the Japanese as research shows that their prolonged life span could be due to the fact that their population's daily diet consists of seafood and fishes. Salmon has a kind of scent which is picked up when it is just caught which are deemed to be partly due to the fats and pink astaxanthins which salmon acquire from eating crustaceans which salmon body system creates from beta-carotene from algae. That is why when salmon is cooked, the astaxanthins in salmon gives rise to its usual floral and fruity tastes.Below is a general picture of salmon fish:

If a fish caught fresh (especially cold-water fishes), sometimes its aroma or smell is somewhat of plantlike smell. This is due to the unsaturated fats that remain at a fluid state at low temperatures. These fats are described to be more like polyunsaturated oils of plant than of animals'. Furthermore, fish skins also contains lipoxygenases which is also found in plant leaves. When the enzyme (lipoxygenases) breaks down the long chain of the polyunsaturated oils, this phenomenon produces a scent of aromatic fragments which is close to of a plant.

Plantlike or sea scent that fishes produced are certainly a welcome sign as it determines the freshness of a fish. However, after the fish is caught and killed, other unwanted scents develop. These scents can easily be perished in the likes of meat but not fishes. This is because fishes body conditions are designed to lived in a lower temperature place than those of its land counterparts. Therefore, their unsaturated fats when temperature rise became easily oxidized (by oxygen) making the scent and taste stale. Bacterias on their body surface do act the same in the aspect of growing faster therefore creating foul smell of a fish if it is not properly kept chilled.

The principal smell contributing to what we know as the 'fishy' term, is a compound called trimethylamine, or TMA. It is derived from trimethylamine oxide, or TMAO, which is not in itself objectionable. TMAO is one of several amines and amino acids that ocean creatures accumulate inside their cells to buffer them against a fatal influx of sea salt. (Seawater is 3 percent salt; the optimal level of dissolved minerals in animal cells is about 1 percent.) Some amino acids—sweet glycine and savory glutamate—turn out to be big contributors to seafood’s delicious repertoire of flavors. Not TMAO, though. The chemical is tasteless but is the precursor of that unappetizing smell. Once a fish is dead, TMAO is gradually converted to TMA by bacteria proliferating on the surfaces of the fish. (Freshwater fish like ayu live in an environment less salty than the inside of their cells, so they don’t accumulate amino acids and amines. Their flesh is mild tasting and slower to turn smelly).

Fortunately the problem of foul smell of fish can be solved with modern day kitchen. A thorough rinsing in cold water helps minimize odors. Oxidized fats, bacteria, and TMA on the surface can be rinsed off with tap water. Acidic ingredients like lemon juice, vinegar or tomatoes helps as well by encouraging stale-smelling fragments to react with water and become less volatile, and they induce TMA to bond with water and other molecules so they never escape the fish’s surface to assault your senses. As for truly spoiled fish, let’s just say that by the time proteins are being broken down into skatole, putrescine, cadaverine, and hydrogen sulfide, so that fish is certainly not suitable anymore for consuming.

The spoiling of fish can be reduced with the method of refrigeration but refrigeration alone will not stop decay. That’s especially true for deep-sea fish with cold-adapted physiology. Enzymes and bacteria typical of our warm-blooded meat animals normally work at 100 degrees Fahrenheit and slow to a crawl in a refrigerator at 40°F but the same refrigerator feels perfectly balmy to deepwater fish enzymes and bacteria. An instant solution to this is to keep the fish as fresh as possible is ice. Fish lasts nearly twice as long in a 32°F slush as it does at typical refrigerator temperatures.Flaked or finely chopped ice is recommended as well because it makes better contact with contours than large cubes or slabs.

Lastly, gills are the best part to check first as their red gills turns brown due to oxidation and the smell of the gills determine the freshness of the fish as the gills are part that water are filtered therefore a good place for bacterias to grow. The gills will smell bad if bacterias are already abundant.


Heallth hazards do exist by eating fish however because of modern day waters are not that clean and choking do happens occasionally as well. Water pollution usually contaminate fishes with mercury and other fat soluble pollutants which is a heavy metal that is toxic to the body. In conclusion, fish still prove to be an imprtant diet to our lives for people who eat it. For people who do not, try it once in awhile as there are not much of risk trying it compared to not eating it.