Do you dare to believe that a yellow fish can sell for a high price of 70,000 yuan?
In February 2021, fishermen in Xiangshan, Ningbo, caught a wild yellow croaker weighing more than 7 catties, an extremely rare size, and finally sold more than 70,000.
Coincidentally, there are more expensive ones!
Previously, a Xiangshan fisherman caught a 9.2-kilogram wild yellow croaker, which had already been bought for 145,000 yuan before entering the port. It was only two pounds heavier than the one just now, and the price doubled.
It is said that we usually go to the vegetable market to buy large yellow croaker, only a dozen yuan a piece. The same is the yellow croaker, why can the wild sell high price, but the breeding is cheap goods?
On May 4, 2016, in Zhoushan International Aquatic City, 9 golden wild yellow croakers are attracting the attention of bidders, and after some competition, the largest wild yellow fish weighs about 4.1 kilograms and is auctioned for a high price of 29,800 yuan. A meal, a fish, eats half a year's salary of ordinary people.
Don't look at the wild yellow fish so expensive, there may not be money in the pocket to eat, foodies want to taste delicious but also depend on fate.
Why is it so expensive to look like ordinary fish?
The big yellow croaker we are talking about here is also called yellow croaker, and the Zhoushan Islands in China are one of the main production areas of yellow croaker. The yellow croaker is delicious and nutritious and is one of the most popular fish in coastal areas. Once upon a time, it was listed as one of the four major marine fisheries along with small yellow croaker, striped fish, cuttlefish, etc., and its production reached more than 200,000 tons in 1974. Let's take a look back at the time of yellow croaker fishing.
The fishermen take advantage of the yellow fish's timidity and vigorously beat the drum surface, so that the two ear stones of the yellow croaker resonate, causing fainting and floating. Look at this boiling scene, the entire yellow fish family has been served in a pot.
Imagine that at that time, if you want to eat delicious yellow croaker, go to the vegetable market early, a dime and a pound, and buy more if you like to eat. Today, wild yellow croaker is listed as an endangered species, and it's no longer something you want to eat.
The age composition of the yellow croaker is complex, the growth is slow, and it is difficult to recover after the resources are destroyed. Generally, wild yellow croaker can grow seven or eight in the first year, and can reach more than two pounds after two or three years, and the longer it grows later, the slower it is. The aforementioned 7 pounds of yellow croaker is estimated to take more than ten years to grow.
114 pounds of wild yellow croaker caught by fishermen in 1964
Since ancient times, the Chinese people like to beg for luck, the big yellow croaker has a little scarlet on the lips, and the yellow and clear like a big gold bar, which means wealth and auspiciousness for coastal residents. As wild yellow croaker became more precious, it also became a symbol of status and wealth. There is a saying in Zhejiang and Fujian regions: "No yellow fish is no banquet", if there is not a wild yellow fish at the wedding banquet, then this table is almost meaningless. But if you see a large yellow croaker served, but you can't eat its delicious taste, you must also be considered ignorant of goods, let alone a qualified foodie.
It is said that the seafood sold in Zhoushan and Ningbo, including large yellow croaker, striped fish, pike crab, etc., is more expensive than in other places, and locals call it Sister Li.
However, seafood is a fresh word, and it is worth it.
In order to restore the fishery resources of the yellow croaker, the state has introduced a fishing moratorium policy, prohibiting fishing vessel operations from May to August every year. However, more than two decades later, the main spawning area of the yellow croaker, The Lvsi Fishery still shows no signs of recovery, and the price of wild yellow croaker is even higher.
Wild ones can't be seen, what if we foodies still want to eat yellow croaker?
So the tank culture came into being, and now the big yellow croaker we eat is basically farmed, and the cultured yellow croaker is also divided into two kinds, one is offshore aquaculture, and the other is deep-sea imitation wild aquaculture. It is conceivable that more than a dozen yuan of yellow croaker comes from offshore, while the price of deep-sea aquaculture is much more expensive, basically supplied to hotels and restaurants. It is said that the taste of deep-sea imitation wild farmed yellow croaker is not much different from that of wild yellow croaker, and its nutritional content is comparable to that of wild yellow croaker.
To sell the price of yellow fish, in addition to the factor of size, the most important thing is the color of the yellow fish. Yellowfish have a golden skin gland under the scales that secrete golden yellow pigment, but this pigment is easily decomposed by ultraviolet rays or strong light and faded. Wild yellow croakers live in deeper seas and can be salvaged in broad daylight to maintain a bright golden color, while farmed yellow croakers are shallower, and during the day, yellow croakers are white and only turn golden at night. Therefore, the fishing of farmed fish is done at night, and the yellow croaker is smothered with ice water to lock in gold. Otherwise, if you see the light and lose the gold, the fish will not be worth much.
At the end of November 2020, a fishing boat in Ningbo caught more than 1,500 kilograms of wild yellow croaker, with a total value of nearly one million yuan. Hearing this news, some people were envious, and some people were heartbroken. You know, we still have a long way to go from the restoration of the resources of the big yellow croaker.
Zhejiang Ocean University's big yellow croaker resources reconstruction team appealed: please be merciful to fishermen and friends, and don't copy the old nest of wild yellow croaker!
If it were you, would you choose to eat wild yellow croaker or farm it if economic conditions permit? Feel free to leave a message in the comment area.