Whitebait

As whitebait consists of immature fry of many important food species (such as herring, sprat, sardines, mackerel, bass and many others) it is not an ecologically viable foodstuff and several countries impose strict controls on harvesting.

Whitebait have been consumed as a favoured element of the diet of peoples living along the northern coasts of the Alboran Sea in Spain, even though sale of these products has been banned.

[2] In Australia whitebait refers to the juvenile stage of several predominantly galaxias species during their return to freshwater from the marine phase of their lifecycle.

Whitebait were once subject to a substantial commercial fishery but today only recreational fishers are permitted to gather them, under strict conditions and for a limited season.

A speciality of the Liguria cuisine, gianchetti are generally lightly boiled in salted water and served hot, dressed with oil and lemon juice.

The gianchetti of a red colour (ruscetti, rossetti) are tougher and scaly to the palate: they are largely used to flavour fish-based sauces.

In Japan, the whitebait (しらす/白子, shirasu)[a] fishing industry is concentrated in Shizuoka Prefecture, where the major landing ports for them are situated.

Whitebaiting in New Zealand is a seasonal activity with a legally fixed and limited period[23] which spans part of the annual migration.

[citation needed] The degradation of waterways through forest clearance, and the impacts of agriculture and urbanisation, have caused the whitebait catch to decline.

[18][26] The loss of suitable spawning habitat has been particularly severe, especially for inanga, which rely on dense riparian vegetation lining the tidal portions of waterways.

[27] In the United Kingdom today, whitebait principally refers to the fry of Clupeidae fish, young sprats, most commonly herring.

[28] They are normally deep-fried, coated in flour or a light batter, and served very hot with sprinkled lemon juice and bread and butter.

[28] In 1903, Dr James Murie, in his 'Report on the sea fisheries and fishing industry of the Thames estuary' conducted studies on the contents of boxes sold as whitebait.

He discovered that some boxes of whitebait contained up to 31 species of immature fish, including the fry of eel, plaice, whiting, herring sprat and bass, along with shrimp, crab, octopus and even jellyfish.

[35] Battered and fried baby cephalopods (usually cuttlefish, but sometimes squid or octopus), known as puntillitas or chopitos, are popular in southern Spain and the Balearic Islands and possibly elsewhere.