Kabeljou

I am writing this with my feet up on an old, rickety wooden table facing the Atlantic Ocean. As almost always, there is a slight breeze blowing toward the land whipping up some white caps. This makes for pleasant weather – not too hot and not too cold. There may even be a spectacular sunset, as there is no mist, not yet anyway.

Like a great many Namibians, I hold many special memories of time spent at our coast. I have been a regular visitor to the coast for a little more than 40 years. Most of the visits were during the long summer holidays as part of the annual family vacation. Like so many other Namibian families, we spent most of our holidays on the beach trying to catch fish. That meant we got up very early and got back quite late. Most of the trips to the fishing spots were made in the dark, before sunrise and after sunset, and on quite a few occasions, tempers flared because we could not locate the exact turn-off to the pre-selected fishing spot.

Dad, who was normally quite calm, got particularly annoyed. Us kids, we just blamed each other as we’d fallen asleep – especially if the journey was far to the north.

I used to love these fishing trips. We would debate the merits of the various fishing spots for hours on end, especially the night before around the dinner table. We were always hopeful, and for most part, we did not do too badly. We caught enough fish on a regular basis, so we took frequent breaks from fishing. On these ‘off-days’, we’d go shopping with Mom. Or visit some school friends who were also on vacation at the coast.

Given that Dad was such an enthusiastic, passionate fisherman, and the fact that we spent every summer holiday at the coast, kabeljou (Argyrosomus inodorus), or silver cod as it is also known, has been an integral part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. I have many precious memories of our quest to catch it and, personally, I have cleaned and cooked hundreds of this fish over the years.

These days, all is not well with our beloved kabeljou. The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (Sassi) considers kabeljou “over-exploited” and “overfished”. In fact, all of the common recreational fish species found along the Namibian coast have a status red, which means that they are under pressure and are subject to some protective measures.

One such measure is to limit daily quotas for each fish caught, and another is to declare them a ‘no-sale’ species. They can thus only be fished for own consumption. This is the case for galjoen (Dichistius capensis), blacktail (Diplodus sargus capensis), and west coast steenbras (Lithognathus aureti). The steenbras also appears on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) list for threatened species.

Consumers are advised not to buy fish (from informal vendors, supermarkets, shops and restaurants) that have a red status.

It is difficult to make real sense of this because we do not publish our own assessments of our recreational fish stocks, but as consumers, we need to take conservation more seriously. As recreational anglers, we need to practice more catch and release.

Last December during a popular angling competition, the two largest fish – both kabeljou of well over 30 kilograms – were presented at an auction to raise money for an old age home. There were almost no bids, and whoever bought them, handed them back to be auctioned again. At the end of the event, the winning fish still could not find a home.

They were too big, and not good for eating. Those fish died for no purpose other than to win a competition. It is time we reconsider how we do our recreational angling, don’t you think?

Fishing is great fun, but I hardly go fishing any more. I am saddened by how much damage we have done and continue to do to our ocean, our marine life, our beaches and our coastline as a whole.

The kabeljou has become my barometer of how much damage we are doing to what was once pristine and dear.

Times have changed, and change is inevitable. But I have this feeling that we could do much better to preserve our glorious silver cod.

• 2 teaspoons butter

• 1 cup omajova mushrooms, chopped

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 300 grams kabeljou (silver cod)

• 1⁄4 cup spring onion, chopped

• 1⁄4 cup white wine, preferably a

good Sauvignon Blanc

• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley

• Preheat oven to 200ºC.

• In small non-stick pan, heat the butter until bubbly and hot. Then add the omajowa, lemon juice, garlic and seasonings and sauté over high heat, stirring occasionally until most of liquid has evaporated.

• Place fish in large enough casserole and top with mushroom mixture, scallions and white wine; bake until fish is opaque and flakes easily when tested with a fork, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley just before serving.

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