Pacific herring

The pacific herring fishery has always been a major fishery on Canada’s Pacific coast. After the collapse of the sardine fishery in the late 1940s, Pacific herring were actively fished for reduction to fish meal and fish oil.

Pacific herring have fewer vertebrae the keel scales between the pectoral and ventral fins are poorly developed or absent and teeth on the vomer bone are weak or absent. Eggs are shed on seaweed, usually in shore waters at a depth to 10-15 m at temperatures of 0 -10.7 ° C (rarely 15 ° C).

Clupea pallasii pallasii inhabits the coasts of the northern Pacific Ocean from the Bering Strait to Korea and in the Arctic Sea to the mouth of the Lena Rover. On the North America coast, it distribution extends from California to Nome, Alaska.

 Fish reach sexual maturity at 2-3 years and reach 50 cm in length. The fish are most abundant off Alaska and British Colombia and are commercially important, particularly for herring roe.
Pacific herring

Flounder summer

The summer flounder (paralichthys dentatus), most commonly called fluke, is a member of the Bothidae family of left-eyed flounder. It is found along the Atlantic coast of North America.

Summer flounders received their name due to their habitation of inshore waters of the northeastern United States during the summer months.

It is the most northerly and perhaps abundant of the three bothid species, as well as the largest and most prized flatfish caught in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Summer flounders is a commercial species and exhibits exceptional color transformation. The meat is firm, white and delicately flavored.

The summer flounder prefers sandy or muddy bottoms and is common in the summer months in bays, harbors, estuaries, canals, creeks, and along shoreline, as wells as in the vicinity of piers and bridges or near patches of eelgrass or other vegetation. Some even penetrate the fresh water of rivers.

Most of the fish are filleted and are good for baking or broiling: they are also used as panfish or are stuffed and rolled.
Flounder summer

Oysters in North America

Until about 1950, mush the largest percentage of world oyster production occurred in North America, primarily in the United States and to a much smaller extent in Canada.

There are many types of oysters. The principle types are Pacific oysters, European oysters, Atlantic oysters and Olympia oysters. There are five species of oyster cultivated commercially in North America. Each has classic characteristics, though they can be expressed quite differently, depending on location and growing conditions.

*Eastern (Crassostrea virginica) – large, sweet with cucumber notes
*Pacific (Crassostrea gigas) – large, soft, sweet, with cucumber notes
*Kumamoto (Crassostrea sikamea) – small, creamy, worth hints of melon
*European Flat (edulis) – medium, metallic
*European Flat (Ostrea edulis) caviar and hazelnut
*Olympia (conchaphila) – tiny, coppery and smoky
*Olympia (Ostrea conchaphila)

While their flavors, appearance and quality will vary depending on where they are grown they still have certain predictable characteristics.

Two species of commercial significance in North America Crassostrea gigas and Ostrea edulis, were both deliberately introduced to the continent to supplement depleted stocks of native oysters.

The former was imported for Japan to the Pacific coast early in the 1900s, where it adapted successfully and currently supports an important fishery in both the United States and Canada. The European flat oyster was first introduced to the United Sates from France in 1949.

Americans eat more oysters than any other people in the world. Their rough, irregular shape shells are unattractive to human eyes, and perhaps to the oyster as well, as an oyster is able to produce both sperm and eggs during its life span.
Oysters in North America