A Really Good Fish Encyclopedia?

[Jimbo]

Maybe one of you has more resources for fish identification than I do. I wanted fish for dinner last night. The wif challenged me to make something milder fishy tasting. I told her to go to her favorite fish monger, ask for some less fish tasting fillets, something like cod or haddock. She comes home with "bassa" (apparently pronounced bah-sa) from Vietnam. I didn't think it had much taste at all, but the wif and both kids scarfed it down. Today I get to thinking, what kind of fish is bassa, anyway. It comes from Vietnam, but only costs $4.99/lb., vs.the more local cod/haddock/talapia at $5.99-6.99/lb. I take 45 minutes out of my busy workday to search the net and find absolutely nothing about bassa. Anyone have an idea if it's actually a species of fish?

[chris L]

here is a news clipping about basa fish

The basa fish is a freshwater fish and is native to southeast Asia. With fishmongers
and grocery store personnel confused about its origin, it should be better labelled.
The actually growing conditions of this fish are variable since some come from
the Mekong River and some from ponds. Some invariably are raised in poultry-fish
systems using poultry manure. Whether the fish is contaminated is also a
highly debatable topic. Reports that I get say that samples have been tested
for contaminants and none have been found above FDA limits. If they had, you
can bet a press release would have been issued by the U.S. catfish industry.

Labelling of basa seems to be intentionally misleading in order to use the marketing
work already done by the farm raised catfish industry and also to avoid negative
association with Vietnam. If this fish were properly labelled and marketed, it
would surely sell at a high value on its own right. The way it was marketed in
2001 damaged the US catfish industry by displacing 20% of its fillet market.

An anidumping suit has been filed against the country of Vietnam concerning this
fish. This could be another case of a developing nation dumping product in
order to get US dollars. Why can't these nations pay their dues like the catfish

[beachwalker]

We should go into that country and take them over like Iraq...

Make them behave the way we want them to.

Does anyone know what kind of military they have ?

[Jimbo]

I didn't even think to check if the market had spelled it correctly. Now that I know it's "basa" and read tons of information on the basa industry, I'm elated that I brought the rest of what I made and had it for lunch today.