What's In a Fish Name?

Ugly fish usually have ugly names. But when you rename them and don’t sell the fish whole to the consumer, they can become quite popular seafood items.

We eat a lot of orange roughy and Chilean sea bass, but if they were listed on the menu with their commonly used names, who knows how unpopular they may suddenly become. And, in actuality, there was a time when they indeed WERE referred to by their previous common names:

Orange Roughy: Hopiostethus atlanticus, was once known as “Slimehead.”

Chilean Sea Bass: Dissostichus eleginoides, was once known as the “Patagonian Toothfish."

Gray Grouper: Mycteroperca microlepsis, was once known as “Gagfish.”

Grenadier: Macrourus berglax, was once known as the “Rattail Fish.”

I didn’t know that. And I didn’t know how ugly these fish really are.

Oh yummy! I kid you not.