The Harvest

As we’ve seen, fish and shellfish are a more delicate and sensitive material than meat. They’re the animal equivalent of ripe fruit, and ideally they would be handled with corresponding care. The reality is otherwise. In a slaughterhouse it’s possible to kill each animal in a controlled way, minimize the physical stress and fear that adversely affect meat quality, and process the carcass immediately, before it begins to deteriorate. The fisherman has no such mastery over the circumstances of the catch, though the fish farmer has some.