(Welcome a new contributor to ChewsWise.com, food writer Clare Leschin-Hoar)
Sure, Sam talks plenty about what kind of fish we should be eating, and we’ve got our own case of the bluefin tuna blues, but not all the fish news is gloomy. Dan Ackman caught our attention when he tackled the job of pointing out primo spots for fishing in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens in a recent WSJ article.
Talk about angling for a view. Who knew New York Harbor was home to striped bass, bluefish, fluke and the occasional albacore tuna? Apparently, plenty of New Yorkers did. There are now nearly 120 fishing spots within the city’s five boroughs, and state officials say the fish caught there is safe for consumption too.
Avid fisherman and marine scientist David Conover of Stony Brook University keeps to his fishing grounds off Long Island but says encouraging urbanites to develop a connection to the ocean helps bring home the message of keeping our waters clean. But would he go so far as to eat something he caught off of Battery Park? “Only on very rare occasions and only if its a migratory species that is just passing through and probably spent most of its life in the open ocean.”
It turns out, New Yorkers aren’t alone in their piscatorial passion. Plenty of states, like Kansas and Minnesota are luring residents to urban fishing programs. Here in Boston, our own harbor is hopping too. Fishing expert Pete Santini says it’s home to stripers, bluefish and cod, and most recently, he’s seeing once-depleted flounder stocks making a strong comeback here.
With gas inching towards $5 a gallon, we bet more fishermen will be taking to the waters close to home this summer, which means it’s only a matter of time before this morphs into another lively Boston/New York rivalry.
–Clare Leschin-Hoar