Strange News of the Day: How to Name a Fish

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Every new pet owner struggles with the problem: What do I name it?

For fishermen and the markets that sell seafood, the problem is the same, with a twist. Their question, more than anything, is: What can I call this, so that people will buy it.

Patagonian toothfish? Doesn't sound too yummy. Better go with Chilean seabass.

Who would eat a dolphin? But mahi mahi -- now that sounds good.

The Food and Drug Administration even publishes a Regulatory Fish Encyclopedia that lists the scientific and common names for the fish you see labeled (sometimes with very different names) at the fish market. There have been numerous reports of fish fraud, where fishermen or markets sell fish labeled as one thing, when they are in fact another ... and sometimes the real fish is an endangered or otherwise off-limits species.

And now, for those thorny cases when none of the existing names seems to fit, the FDA has published a flow chart to help fishermen name fish in a way that won't deceive customers... We'll see if it works.

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