For several years, environmental and governmental groups have dealt with strategies for addressing invasive plant and aquatic animals brought into the Great Lakes from foreign environments. Most recently, the invasion has come from the interior; specifically from the south, where Asian carp were imported to clean catfish ponds of algae, but were fond to multiple and migrant north, threatening to literally jump into Lake Michigan and eat up Great Lakes fish.
The words, “carp” and “Asian” don’t have much currency in the Midwest, for understandable, though unjustified reasons. In an era where many species of fish are overfished, this species of carp offers a delectable and nutritious sustainable alternative — if only there was a market for it.
The Detroit Free Press reports that an ad agency is working with folks in Illinois to rebrand the fish according to its creative vision. Taste-testing for a fish called “Shanghai Bass” (a.k.a. Asian Carp) have been promising, though the name may have an illicit connotation for some. Look for the formal brand rollout this summer — appropriately at a seafood show…
Marketing efforts to create demand for the fish extend back to 2010 according to Steve Riven in “Rebranding the Asian Carp.” “It began in Louisiana,” Riven writes, “where wildlife officials rolled out a promotion dubbing the fish the Silverfin, and enlisting chefs to create recipes for the tasty white meat of the bighead carp and silver carp, two dominant invaders. “A cross between scallops and crabmeat,” declared one seafood chef. Meanwhile, carp boosters in Kentucky, after trying the fish smoked and canned, concluded that it tasted remarkably like tuna. They proposed calling it Kentucky Tuna. Northward in Chicago, a chef at an upscale restaurant has his own solution. After failing to seduce diners to the wonders of Asian carp, even when he gave away free appetizers, the chef reintroduced the fish on local TV as Shanghai Bass.”
Riven reminds us that Chilean Sea bass wasn’t always perceived as the delicacy it is. Consider “Patagonian Tooth fish” You’ve alienated naturalists right off by suggesting that you’re eating something from Patagonia. And then the image of a fish with teeth can be a bit threatening. But “Chilean Sea bass,” along with a good Chilean white wine? Now there’s a combination that worth paying good money for.
By the way, Asians in China and Vietnam have long farmed and considered this species of carp a delicacy. Americans confuse the foreign invaders with the bottom-feeding, stronger-tasting common carp. The Asian carp mainly eat plankton, not garbage on the floor of rivers and lakes. Their flesh is not high in mercury, and is rich in healthy omega-3 fats.
State legislators in Minnesota entered the debate in 2014 — not so much appropriating funds to contain the migration of the fish, but to rebrand its name to be less offensive to Asian populations. Despite the origin of the fish — Southeast Asia — the name “Asian” associated with an invasive species, has obvious ethnic and possibly racial undertones (perhaps overtones as well). It plays on fears of invasion, as well as the Midwest still smarting from the Asian influence on the auto industry (and most manufacturing industries). Of course who could forget (or want to remember) former President Trump’s effort to brand the coronavirus, “Kung Flu.”
Asian carp actually describes two closely related fish, the bighead carp and silver carp, that are native to a region of Asia spanning China, part of Siberia and North Korea, said Cindy Kolar, a fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va. Since their introduction to the United States about 30 years ago, they have become a threat to native fish including those in the Great Lakes, Minnesota and elsewhere.
Jean Lee, executive director of Children’s Hope International Minnesota chapter, testified at a state legislative hearing, that references to the carp intentionally or unintentionally referred to “Asian people in terms of being invasive species. This is offensive.” Proponents were recommending limiting the reference to “invasive carp.”
Yes, we name things to convey an image — good and not-so good, intentionally and unintentionally. We also rename them, as in the case of Chilean Sea Bass. Have you ever seen orange roughy, known among open sea anglers as “slime head?” Monkfish conveys certain monastic virtue, but actually is known officially as “goosefish” that doesn’t wear hooded cloaks, though it may appear prayerful in a secluded setting of the sea. How about that whiskered bottom-feeder, catfish? Try “delecata.”
We live in a world made more palatable through branding. We also live in a world that has become increasingly difficult to laugh at, or with, for our own good. Once, in Detroit and Minneapolis, and probably in syndication throughout North America, a cartoonist known as Richard Guindin created a world of humor around the bottom-feeding cousin of Asian carp. Certainly unappetizing, it offered a kind of imagine of the polluted waterways of the late 20th century in Southeast Michigan. Carp was definitely not something you would want to eat, nor was it a fish you particularly wanted to preserve.
Guindin published a cartoon book, “The World According to Carp” (available in paperback on Amazon). His work is featured in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University. Guindin’s work may have inspired the podcast Carp Angler Chronicles,
The struggle to control invasive species and social marketing is space where public and private interest may find common ground. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has long held that consumption of invasive species is one way of controlling it. In referring to the lion fish, James A. Morris Jr., an ecologist at the Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, National Ocean Service, says that he doesn’t think it’s possible to eradicate the invasive fish exclusively by eating it, but that the strategy could help in protected areas that are easily accessible by divers, like the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Still, he says, “Any increase in fishing effort would be good. It’s actually a good thing to fish this down so you can’t find it anymore.” NOAA developed an “Eat Lion fish” campaign.
Anyone who has worked in the fascinating, often bizarre world of product packaging and promotion would find the challenge of rebranding the “Asian carp” as a great creative opportunity.
Indeed, as environmental engineers grapple with how to prevent these leaping invaders from feasting on the defenseless fish of the Great Lakes — and untold millions of investment, marketing folks are figuring out how to make their image more palatable to North Americans — and maybe promote a fishing industry at along the Illinois River and other inner waterways of the south central United States. After all, this fish is fleshy, tastes sweet, and is nutritious. What’s not to like? Well, let’s start with ethnic bias, or even racism. How about Midwestern resentment for Asian dominance of the domestic auto industry ? Or fear that China is using this fish as one of its strategies to paralyze the US from within?
Maybe President Biden should weigh in and say it’s in the national interest to eat this fish once a week.
Post was written by Dennis Archambault.
Illustration by Richard Guindin
