Fish Everywhere

FishyFacts 12

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:36:00 +0000

Many deepwater fish appear red in daylight, but in their natural environment, in ambient light, they appear grey or black.
Right: Orange roughy live at depths of hundreds of metres. Red light doesn't penetrate that far, so they appear black, against a black background! Illustration: Bernard Yau: www.efishalbum.com

Nailed It!

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 02:23:00 +0000

Momofuku steamed Pork Buns ...

Second attempt. Good flour, good yeast, some extra flour on the board to roll, non-stick baking paper, let rise at each stage and voila! Buns of perfection.

The pork belly is the easy part. After 6 hour marinade in sugar and salt, that is. Skin off, super hot oven, then cool oven.

Warm buns, warm pork, home pickled cucumber (easy), spring onion, hoisin sauce and a few drops of sriracha sauce...

Amazing! Taste committed to memory to be able to compare to the real thing at Momofuku Ssam bar ... one day – maybe even prepared by son Dan.

FishyFacts 11

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:57:00 +0000

Surface area of all world oceans – 360 million square km; Total volume – 1.33 billion cubic km. A lot of water between fish

FishyFact 10

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:01:00 +0000

As a rule of thumb, between 20% and 50% of most wild fish populations die each year from natural causes.
Left: A school of tarwhine. Most fish populations suffer very high natural mortality rates.
Photo courtesy: http://www.daveharasti.com/

FishyFacts #9

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:10:00 +0000

The brain of the average fish weighs about 0.05% the weight of its body. The equivalent human figure is about 1.8%

(Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teethrash/4531961183/)

FishyFact#8

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:47:00 +0000

Because they live at cold temperatures, deep-water fish will spoil in a fridge much faster than coastal or surface fishes.

Right: A steak from the deep sea 'Hapuku'.

(Photo: http://3hungrytummies.blogspot.com/2011/02/pan-fried-hapuka-with-garlicky-soy.html

Tomato Facts

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:01:00 +0000

Yes, I eat food other than fish. I am an omnivore (so are rats, cockroaches and pigs). This is my very first crop of tomatoes from the veggie patch that Loani the Fabulous (LTF) had built for my last birthday. Also in the patch are Vietnamese mint, normal mint, flat-leaf parsley, Thai basil, Greek basil, stawberries. capsicum and passionfruit.

The tomato plants were looking decidedly Jack-and-the-beanstalk-ish, so trimmed the tops, took off new flowers, et voila, tomatoes started to ripen. (Turns out there is more to tomato growing than sticking them in the ground and harvesting lovely plump fruit some weeks later ... Tomato

Heading for a salad to accompany the next fine fish dish. Spring has sprung.

Fishy Facts #7:

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:32:00 +0000

The total annual commercial catch of wild seafood in Australian waters is about 170,000 tonnes – just 0.2% of the global catch.
Right: Sand whiting. Just one of many species making up the commercial catch in Australian waters.
Photo courtesy: http://www.daveharasti.com/

FishyFacts#6

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:57:00 +0000

Jewfish take their name from their large earbones (otliths) – called ‘jewels’ by fishermen. Jewelfish became jewfish over time
Right: A jewfish, or mulloway. Photo courtesy: http://www.daveharasti.com/

FishyFact#5.

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:51:00 +0000

About 4400 species of bony fish, 350 species of sharks & rays, 44 species of whales & dolphins are found in Australian water
Left: Grey reef sharks, common on northern reefs
Photo courtesy: http://www.daveharasti.com/

FishyFacts#4:

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:50:00 +0000

A 400kg+ female black marlin will produce over 100 million eggs each year. What if they all survived? ...
Left: A black marlin of approximately 200kg released off the Great Barrier Reef.

Fishy Fact#3.

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:49:00 +0000

Coral trout change sex from female to male. Barramundi change sex from male to female

Left: A large coral trout which, due to its size is most likely a male
Photo courtesy: http://www.daveharasti.com/

Fishy Fact #2.

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:47:00 +0000

Dolphinfish (mahi mahi) can grow to 20kg in their first year of life. One of my favourite eating fish, but not if frozen.

Fishy Fact#1

noreply@blogger.com (Queen of the Tea Cosies) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:27:00 +0000

Male squid, octopus & cuttlefish die after mating. Females die after laying their eggs. Most live only two years. Sad but true.

(Right: A southern calamari. Calamaris are types of squid) Photo courtesy http://www.daveharasti.com/

Bluey

noreply@blogger.com (Queen of the Tea Cosies) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:21:00 +0000

Sometimes we forget about the act of fishing – how it is an ancient form of hunting for sustenance ingrained in the genetic memory of many of us.

Pending our visit to his wonderful house on the NSW south coast, one man paddled out through the surf on a kayak and dived knowingly down to catch the red crabs for bait. Back into the kayak, he fished for two hours to catch this wonderful fish, and its mate. Scaled and cleaned on the beach, they rested in the fridge for our future repast.

It is a blue groper, native to, and official State fish of NSW. An iconic, revered species. Caught with dedication, love, joy and anticipation.

That evening, simply cooked by making a foil bag, covered with ginger and shallots and a swig of Chinese cooking wine, popped on a hotplate for about 15 minutes, then opened carefully for final spooning over of smoking hot peanut oil for the final sizzle before serving. With an excellent red, of course, and much fishy talk.

From ocean to table in one day by one man for a feast.

I honestly can't think of a more wonderful meal. An act of generosity, homage to nature, respect for the fish and its environment. Thanks so much, John and Sue.

Bermagui Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Queen of the Tea Cosies) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:58:00 +0000

I used to spend a lot of time in the Bermagui area, on the south coast of New South Wales. It's a beautiful place with a long maritime history, especially revolving around game fishing. Zane Grey put it on the map in 1936 when he spent several months there, caught a lot of striped marlin, and wrote eloquently about it.

This year, I revisited familiar places and old friends there. The work side of the trip was to monitor the annual game fishing tournament and to take biological samples from any fish that were brought to the weigh station (the great majority of fish are now tagged and released).

I've been doing this for many years, but over the past 7, have had funding to do so. This pays for travel and for training students in this aspect of fish biology. They love it, and, well, so do I.

This is one of only four marlin landed during the tournament. A nice striped marlin that Zane Grey would have been proud of.

Junior ('small fry') anglers had a special category. This is a striped tuna, more correctly known as skipjack tuna. It is one of the most prolific fishes in the world, and is the fish you eat whenever you open a can of tuna.

Striped tuna are very strong for their size, so catching one like this is worth a photo, eh?

Each year, I keep a look out for students who want to pursue a career in fisheries biology and give them some hands on experience in the gamefish fishery.

Karen Scott from Charles Sturt University has previously studied the diet of tiny freshwater gudgeons with tweezers, so being this close to a big marlin was a new experience. Good job, Karen!

And yes, the marlin was then filleted and frozen for future yummy meals.

Best Seller for the Publisher

noreply@blogger.com (Queen of the Tea Cosies) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:45:00 +0000

The first list. I like lists, especially being on top of a list. Not that this is a familiar feeling, but it sure is a good one. This is not the top ten list of bestsellers from the New York Times, or Australian non-fiction titles, but it IS the current top ten list from my publisher, UNSW Press. Which makes me a happy chappy. (Click on the image on the left to enlarge, and see what the fuss is about).

Look what the cat dragged in

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:51:00 +0000

... an Eastern Water Dragon. Wes The Cat (Burmese) is generally content to sleep the days away, and yes, we do keep him in at night, but sometimes he wanders down into the garden and brings up something for me to look at. Usually small skinks, but occasionally a dragon!

I'm no lizard expert but from the size of this one, I figured it was a juvenile, but it has a lovely orange tummy which I think indicates male breeding colours.

See its belly? Very alluring. And in case you're wondering, Wes The Cat is remarkably gentle with lizards. He delicately holds them in his mouth at the back of the head and doesn't even puncture the skin ... really. After these quick pics, he (the dragon) was released on top of the rock tier, whereupon he took off like a scalded, err ... cat.

Doonan is not normally this exciting, by the way.

Sydney Game Fishing Club

noreply@blogger.com (Queen of the Tea Cosies) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:33:00 +0000

Family, friends, colleagues and fishers - thank you for coming to the Sydney Game Fishing Club at Watson's Bay on Friday night. What a great party you put on.

Thank you Alistair for introducing me and 'launching' the book in Sydney.

And to Glenn Wright, President of the SGFC, thanks to you and the club committee for your great organization and generosity.

Otto, barbeque chef extraordinaire. That pork was to die for (a bit different from the usual cheese and bikkies).

And thanks also to Barbara from Oscar and Friends Bookshop who took care of all the book sales on the night.

Top left photo:

That's my dad, Geoff Pepperell, there on the far left with my sister Jennifer and brother Chris.

Thanks for coming one and all. The book is now sailing proudly on the ocean waves.

Brisbane Launch at Mary Ryan's Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Queen of the Tea Cosies) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:36:00 +0000

Men, women and children came - and they all love fish! And they bought every copy of the book in the shop.

The book now has a life of its own, having been launched into the wild blue yonder by Tim Simpson, fisher and editor extraordinaire. Thanks Tim.

And thank you for coming everyone.

And thank you Danette from Mary Ryan's Bookstore for hosting such a great event.

Hand painted from Guy Harvey

noreply@blogger.com (Queen of the Tea Cosies) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:11:00 +0000

These arrived from Guy this week ready for me to sign and wing their way down to Launceston for binding. I'm very pleased with them. They look great.

They are the book plates that will be bound-in to the special editions. Click on the "About the Special Editions" on the side menu.

A New Book - with a very big SPLASH

noreply@blogger.com (Pepperfish) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:58:00 +0000

I will be at the following spots to say hello and sign copies of Fishes of the Open Ocean. Please be sure to RSVP. I have a sense that there might be few people at each of these events, and clubs (and the bookstore) will want to have enough beers at the ready.

You will be able to purchase books at each of the following events.

Tuesday 17 November - BRISBANE

6.00pm Mary Ryan's Bookstore,
Park Road, Milton
RSVP Danette at Mary Ryan's ph: 07 3510 5065

Friday 20 November - SYDNEY

7.00pm Sydney Game Fishing Club
Marine Parade, Watsons Bay
RSVP to loani at austarnet dot com dot au or Loani on 0417 613 138

Tuesday 1 December - SUNSHINE COAST

6.00pm Sunshine Coast Game Fishing Club (Host)
Kawana Waters Hotel
RSVP to loani at austarnet dot com dot au or Loani on 0417 613 138

Friday 4 December - MELBOURNE

7.00pm Victorian Game Fishing Club
186 Station Street, Edithvale
RSVP to loani at austarnet dot com dot au or Loani on 0417 613 138