
The Man Who Got Americans to Eat Pollock - mudil
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-19/fisherman-turns-80-into-1-1-billion-by-popularizing-trash-fish
======
grecy
It's all about marketing and perception.

When I moved North my first year Salmon fishing in Alaska I watched as
Northerners through back hundreds of pounds of Chum Salmon, because it's soft,
mushy and crap, they said. It's commonly called Dog Salmon because the locals
only keep it to feed to their sled dogs.

A couple of months later I was in Vancouver, and was more than a little
surprised to see Chum Salmon for sale for about $25/lb. It was labeled as
"Highly renowned for it's soft, pink flesh".

Convince people something is good, and when they have little or no
alternative, they'll go for it.

~~~
dublinclontarf
Lobster used to be used as garden fertiliser and was a mark of poverty eating
it.

~~~
Grazester
My dad grew up on a tiny rock(just a few square miles) in the Caribbean. He
had to "raise" his fish pots every morning before school(primary school at
that) to get fresh fish for breakfast and the day's lunch.

Fish was plentiful then and so was lobster. In fact the lobster was a nuisance
because it would sometime get into their fish pots and they had little value
to locals or people of the surrounding larger islands.

This one time he and his cousin caught a few in the pot and had them in him
small row boat, his cousin forgot to carry a bale to bale out water from the
boat. There was a yacht anchored nearby and my dad went to ask for a container
to bale out the water. The french owner of the yacht didn't have one so be
opened a big can of baked bean, quickly tossed its content overboard and gave
them the can. My dad and his cousin could not believe what they had just
witnessed; To them it was such a waste. Baked bean was something you get from
the mainland and it was not easily affordable to them.

The french Yacht owner then asked if he could have a lobster and said that him
and his wife loved it so much. My dad was taken by how the man spoke about his
love for lobster and just gave him all they had in the boat. One man's trash
is another man's treasure.

I grew up a fish snob living in the Caribbean unfortunately and most of the
fish served in the U.S at chain restaurants(and even non chain restaurants) I
would consider trash fish.

------
supernumerary
Having fished Pollock I can confirm that they are typically riddled with
nematodes, not sure why, perhaps it's their diet - the article notes they are
"ground fish" which might be a euphemism for bottom feeders.

Generally, I think the historical low-value of some fish is a product of
fishermen being enmeshed with the markets and communities where the fish they
catch is sold. We have lost that for the most part, and therefore lower
quality fish becomes salable, particularly if it is heavily processed (hence
the fast-food chains being the first to pick it up).

But yeah, you're eating worms buddy.

~~~
mudil
Lots of fishes have worms. In the Bay Area/Northern CA I fish for Pacific jack
mackerel, and practically every fish has worms. I don't think they are
considered bottom fishes, though.

~~~
andrewvc
Nearly all wild fish have worms
[https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/d755kx/almost-
every-...](https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/d755kx/almost-every-kind-
of-wild-fish-is-infected-with-worms)

Not really a surprise. Before sanitation massive quantities of people had them
too. Parasites are still a problem in much of the world for humans and animals
alike.

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
Might it be possible to kill the worms with x-rays or something?

~~~
mmierz
The usual way is to kill them with heat when the fish is cooked

------
philovivero
Create a need, then fill it. He managed to convince a few very large seafood-
serving companies that this cheap and abundant fish was actually what they
wanted, so they bought it -- from him -- in vast quantities.

So... Make sure, in your startup, that you're convincing your customers that
they need what you've got?

~~~
AndrewKemendo
_Create a need, then fill it._

Wait, this is the exact opposite of what everyone around here argues about.
It's always "Identify a pain point", or find something existing that people
need. NOT create a product and then build the market.

I think there is definitely a place for creating a need, so I agree, but it's
certainly counter to the startup mantra.

~~~
alizaki
I'm not sure if identifying pain is the opposite of creating need. The pain
here was fast foods need for cheap fish that has a reliable supply. The need
was created when he was able to convince these companies that his fish supply
chain was their best solution.

------
zitterbewegung
If anyone wants to try reproducing this in the Midwest we have Asian Carp
which you could probably do the same thing to. I think some restaurants are
already attempting to do so.

~~~
alextheparrot
As a kid my dad and I would bow hunt these. They have a certain season where
they'll breach the surface, letting you get an arrow off easily. We'd smoke
them and fill up an entire refrigerator in the basement (No limit as they are
invasive), pretty decent tasting.

------
Animats
I don't think I've ever had pollock, or even seen it for sale. Does it go into
fish sticks, or what?

(The "swordfish" I had in a Palo Alto eatery a few days ago seemed
suspiciously soft and fatty for swordfish.)

~~~
fweespeech
Yes.

[http://www.tridentseafoods.com/Products/Detail?pid=25546ab0-...](http://www.tridentseafoods.com/Products/Detail?pid=25546ab0-dfb6-498c-95bd-93aef94435a1)

[http://www.ljsilvers.com/news-events/item/117-introducing-
ha...](http://www.ljsilvers.com/news-events/item/117-introducing-hand-breaded-
homestyle-buttermilk-cod)

If its some kind of white fish and its not named, its frequently something
like pollock.

~~~
emodendroket
It's also the major component of most imitation crab meat.

------
rayiner
Pretty amusing that this article (1) doesn't explain how this guy got
Americans to eat pollock, and (2) seems to be written exclusively based on
assertions on Trident's corporate website.

------
franklovecchio
It's worth mentioning that the logistics and engineering side of the
Pollock/Surimi production was just as interesting. Paraphrasing the book from
memory, [https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Deckload-Dreams-Bundrant-
Sea...](https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Deckload-Dreams-Bundrant-
Seafoods/dp/1933245344), Trident initially contracted the Japanese and their
method/machines to produce Surimi from Pollock, but eventually switched to
German-made machines and a more efficient production line methodology they
came up with themselves - I believe they used the Pollock not worthy of quick-
freeze for the Surimi instead of dedicating a production line specific to it.

------
mozumder
If it tastes good, then it's not trash.

~~~
philovivero
There's a fair bit of nutritional research and a few pop-sci books that cover
it saying that in fact, if it tastes good, it probably is trash. If we define
trash as food with a lot of caloric content but little nutritional content.

Much of today's food is designed to be addictive. There is little other
consideration in its design or creation.

There is a reason there's an obesity epidemic in Western nations.

~~~
ams6110
The reason may simply be that food is abundant and cheap in Western nations. I
don't see that as a bad thing.

~~~
emodendroket
I don't think so, considering obesity has skyrocketed since the 90s and I
don't think we were starving then.

~~~
duncan_bayne
I think research points to a lack of physical activity, at least in children,
as a casual factor.

------
Symbiote
I use an app called "Good Fish Guide" to show me how sustainable the fish I
buy is.

Alaskan pollock gets the second best rating.

[http://www.goodfishguide.org/fish/28/Pollock,%20Alaska,%20Wa...](http://www.goodfishguide.org/fish/28/Pollock,%20Alaska,%20Walleye)

------
triplesec
It sounds as if he made a lot of his money by regulatory capture and
anticompetitive lobbying practices

