hi I’m Barton Seaver chef and National
Geographic fellow and this is cook wise
now the wild striped bass is such an
iconic species on the Atlantic coast
that nearly every region has its own
name for this king of fish found in
waters from coastal Carolina’s all the
way up through Maine this fish is
popular with both commercial and sport
fishermen alike its prized because of
its meaty white sweet flesh which is the
reason why I’d love to cook them up
we’re down here on the Chesapeake Bay
and Rock Hall Maryland we’re in these
parts we call wild striped bass rockfish
we’re with one of my great friends and
personal mentors dr. Carl Safina of the
blue ocean Institute morning Carl
morning Barton and Rick Morlock a local
fisherman who’s going to be telling us a
little bit about a pound net yep how you
boys doing this mordrake well so tell us
something about this pound it it holds
everything a lot when we fish if we take
out only what’s marketable and then we
release all the undersized fish so we
considered a very sustainable fishery
it’s great so everything goes back into
the water happy and healthy except those
fish which are heading to our grill all
right let’s get
so we got tons of fish in here right now
this is great news I think the recovery
strike that is the greatest success
story in fishery management in the world
why is that in the early 80s striped
bass where it’s such a low level that
people were talking about putting them
on the endangered species list and
eventually after a lot of arguing they
put a five year moratorium to let those
young fish grow to breeding size so we
have to take fish there of a certain
size but there’s also a limit on the
topic
yeah well as the fish throw females
produce many more eggs than you would
expect when a fish doubles in size she
doesn’t just produce twice as many eggs
she produces about 10 times as many eggs
that’s why there’s a size limit on the
top end as well so that those fish that
have survived and gotten big enough and
are really valuable as breeders
get protected to get the striped bass
back required the cooperation of local
states on the Atlantic coast and as you
can imagine took a lot of arguing to get
everybody to agree and it was
disappearing so something had to be done
I’ve heard the only way to get for
fishermen to agree on anything is to put
three of them out of the room these tags
you’re putting in these striper is
pretty important these tags are very
important they’re key to a sustainable
fishery is accountability traceability
and seafood is one of the hardest things
to manage fillet looks like every other
fillet when it’s on the plate and sure
most often or not it comes to the
consumer in the form of flesh so it’s
hard to know what you’re getting in the
formulas rockfish it’s one of the very
few fish that’s really attacked and this
tag follows that fish right to the
restaurant we want to be able to go to
our legislators and say we are doing
everything we’re supposed to be doing
nothing quite like the sweet taste of
success
that’s very true how about focus on
these for us let’s go
so we’re at the grill to cook up this
Chesapeake Bay rockfish that we pulled
out of the water just this morning a few
things we had to do to the fish first
before we cook it taken off the scales
as well as the fins now you can get this
from your butcher as well just ask for a
fish dressed and then we’re gonna take a
little bit of ginger garlic and olive
oil rub it on the skin and we’re gonna
slowly smolder it over a dying fire with
a little bit of Applewood chips give it
this nice smoky aroma I love cooking
fish hole it keeps so much that moisture
in it it’s such a great presentation
people can really celebrate what it is
that we’re eating so we placed the fish
on the side of the grill away from the
charcoal fire is very difficult to
control the heat up but it’s very easy
to control how far away from the heat
you are there’s nothing quite like that
glowing bronze color of gently smoked
stuff love it plate this up and serve it
up Wow
I’ve seen a lot of stripers but that is
the prettiest one I can remember seeing
don’t be 50 nothing all right
I’m very fresh so what are we having the
bowl here well the only thing to finish
this dish off we’ve got a salad of fresh
arugula leaves sliced apple and my
favorite thing in the world mint and
then a little bit of green grape red
grape red onion chili flake in olive oil
this is what we got up this morning for
that’s right I appreciate that I
appreciate you taking us out and showing
us a little bit about what you do oh how
well you do it I was glad to do it for
you now I get this wonderful meal
straight fast like we’re good
conservation meets the plate and the
palate awesome for recipes tips
techniques links seafood stories and
more visit ocean Don National Geographic
comm forward slash cook wise to join us
in a global effort to protect the ocean
go to I am the ocean org and remember
delicious is the new environmentalism so
cook wise
Geographic fellow and this is cook wise
now the wild striped bass is such an
iconic species on the Atlantic coast
that nearly every region has its own
name for this king of fish found in
waters from coastal Carolina’s all the
way up through Maine this fish is
popular with both commercial and sport
fishermen alike its prized because of
its meaty white sweet flesh which is the
reason why I’d love to cook them up
we’re down here on the Chesapeake Bay
and Rock Hall Maryland we’re in these
parts we call wild striped bass rockfish
we’re with one of my great friends and
personal mentors dr. Carl Safina of the
blue ocean Institute morning Carl
morning Barton and Rick Morlock a local
fisherman who’s going to be telling us a
little bit about a pound net yep how you
boys doing this mordrake well so tell us
something about this pound it it holds
everything a lot when we fish if we take
out only what’s marketable and then we
release all the undersized fish so we
considered a very sustainable fishery
it’s great so everything goes back into
the water happy and healthy except those
fish which are heading to our grill all
right let’s get
so we got tons of fish in here right now
this is great news I think the recovery
strike that is the greatest success
story in fishery management in the world
why is that in the early 80s striped
bass where it’s such a low level that
people were talking about putting them
on the endangered species list and
eventually after a lot of arguing they
put a five year moratorium to let those
young fish grow to breeding size so we
have to take fish there of a certain
size but there’s also a limit on the
topic
yeah well as the fish throw females
produce many more eggs than you would
expect when a fish doubles in size she
doesn’t just produce twice as many eggs
she produces about 10 times as many eggs
that’s why there’s a size limit on the
top end as well so that those fish that
have survived and gotten big enough and
are really valuable as breeders
get protected to get the striped bass
back required the cooperation of local
states on the Atlantic coast and as you
can imagine took a lot of arguing to get
everybody to agree and it was
disappearing so something had to be done
I’ve heard the only way to get for
fishermen to agree on anything is to put
three of them out of the room these tags
you’re putting in these striper is
pretty important these tags are very
important they’re key to a sustainable
fishery is accountability traceability
and seafood is one of the hardest things
to manage fillet looks like every other
fillet when it’s on the plate and sure
most often or not it comes to the
consumer in the form of flesh so it’s
hard to know what you’re getting in the
formulas rockfish it’s one of the very
few fish that’s really attacked and this
tag follows that fish right to the
restaurant we want to be able to go to
our legislators and say we are doing
everything we’re supposed to be doing
nothing quite like the sweet taste of
success
that’s very true how about focus on
these for us let’s go
so we’re at the grill to cook up this
Chesapeake Bay rockfish that we pulled
out of the water just this morning a few
things we had to do to the fish first
before we cook it taken off the scales
as well as the fins now you can get this
from your butcher as well just ask for a
fish dressed and then we’re gonna take a
little bit of ginger garlic and olive
oil rub it on the skin and we’re gonna
slowly smolder it over a dying fire with
a little bit of Applewood chips give it
this nice smoky aroma I love cooking
fish hole it keeps so much that moisture
in it it’s such a great presentation
people can really celebrate what it is
that we’re eating so we placed the fish
on the side of the grill away from the
charcoal fire is very difficult to
control the heat up but it’s very easy
to control how far away from the heat
you are there’s nothing quite like that
glowing bronze color of gently smoked
stuff love it plate this up and serve it
up Wow
I’ve seen a lot of stripers but that is
the prettiest one I can remember seeing
don’t be 50 nothing all right
I’m very fresh so what are we having the
bowl here well the only thing to finish
this dish off we’ve got a salad of fresh
arugula leaves sliced apple and my
favorite thing in the world mint and
then a little bit of green grape red
grape red onion chili flake in olive oil
this is what we got up this morning for
that’s right I appreciate that I
appreciate you taking us out and showing
us a little bit about what you do oh how
well you do it I was glad to do it for
you now I get this wonderful meal
straight fast like we’re good
conservation meets the plate and the
palate awesome for recipes tips
techniques links seafood stories and
more visit ocean Don National Geographic
comm forward slash cook wise to join us
in a global effort to protect the ocean
go to I am the ocean org and remember
delicious is the new environmentalism so
cook wise
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