Why 4 Of The World's Priciest Seafoods Are So Expensive | So Expensive Food | Business Insider

[@ninja.saywhat]

it's crazy how these are considered nowadays as some of the "world's most expensive seafoods". all of these excluding the barnacles were everywhere when i was a child where i grew up (the tropics in southeast asia). you can practically harvest them yourselves for free. fast forward 2 decades later living in california, now reminiscing those good old childhood days of mine. just goes to show there's a lot of things in our life that shouldn't be taken granted for.

[@eilois]

including cryptocurrency, everything hype will lead to high demand and low supply thus skyrocketed price. I'm glad that western doesn't eat rice as staple food.

[@OMalleyTheMaggot]

@@eilois "western doesn't eat rice as a staple food" Lmao what That's so wrong Besides, rice is cheap and easy to grow.

[@nicholasthuya7683]

@@OMalleyTheMaggot it’s just sometimes rice is hard to grow in cold areas

[@skizztrizz4453]

Rich people mess everything up. Chicken wings and oxtails used to be cheap af.🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏿‍♂️😤

[@Monkey_11]

@@eilois 😆

[@tawermeister99]

I love how Japanese culture take pride in every skill. The eel grill guy said it takes a lifetime to master the grill. Very humble.

[@peffken8834]

Absolutely. But the exaggeration and stylization of their pride unfortunately results in such statements as "it takes years, a lifetime..." and apparently no sense of sustainability. It is this disproportion of appreciation of consume and disinterest in preserving the animals. Almost everywhere is consumed without sustainability, but I would like to point out that I find that the cultivated, courteous way of preparing things stands in stark contrast to the things also to preserve.

[@bangrojai]

LoL. I am still mastering my skill in fart and take a shit. It is already 42 years till now and i am still far from mastering it.

[@Nrgheal]

They'd eat the last of it's kind any day, any fish or seafood.

[@peffken8834]

@@bangrojai come to the dark side

[@yrureadingthisname]

Idk, if it takes you three years to master putting a skewer into an eel... you probably should be doing something else. Like eating crayons.

[@SadeWithTheReceipts]

@0:19 Japanese Eel . @6:57 Stone Crab Claws. @13:14 Sea Urchins/Gonads. @22:45 Gooseneck Barnacles

[@agathar7115]

if you ever see unagi at a Japanese restaurant i highly, highly recommend giving it a try! it’s not always this expensive. the meat is oily and fatty, with a softer grain than regular fish, and a rich almost pungent flavor. it’s not for everyone but personally it is my favorite fish.

[@jwlsiee]

unagi anywhere outside of japan is barely even the same as in japan. not to say its bad, but its impossible to overstate how much better authentic unagi is. the reason unagi isnt expensive outside japan is because the unagi you get is essentially factory produced. if you do have the chance, the expensive version is worth it.

[@RobertBulldoza]

I've had very fine unagi in Japan while living near Tokyo, I hate it and can't understand how folks enjoy it. I'm a seafood lover and love all sushi except unagi and fermented soybean. Disgusting.

[@naga90210]

For anyone unaware, barnacles are extremely sharp and hard. In coastal towns it's drilled into your head from a young age that if you get sucked out to sea NEVER grab onto a pier because the barnacles will literally tear your body to shreds, like getting put through a grater. Imagine getting raked along a strip of jagged and sharp rocks repeatedly, that's why harvesting them is so dangerous.

[@nuckinfuts7610]

I'm 41yrs old and I still remember stepping on barnacles barefoot at the beach when I was 7yrs old like it just happened this morning. The bottom of my foot looked liked it was high-fived by Wolverine. Barnacles deserve their very own volume of Thug LIfe videos showing just how gangsta they are. They will cut you. Literally.

[@aridavid4142]

I remember falling off my dock in 6th grade and when I tried to climb back up my body ended up slamming onto one the the posts and the side of my stomach was shredded.

[@lonesomefencesitter3186]

Yeah, It kinda surprised me that the harvester didn't use gloves.

[@meat3958]

@FULL DOUBLE my legs were shredded by barnacles as a child; definitely not muscles. They look exceptionally different.

[@aridavid4142]

@FULL DOUBLE with all due respect I have lived on the water for quite some time and as @Meat said they look very different.

[@austingrathwol2961]

What a lot of people don’t know, recreational harvesting for Stone crab you can only keep one claw in most areas so that way they can still get food, I’ve been harvesting them and they tend to grow claws back in a year or 2, commercial is a little different

[@beckstheimpatient4135]

I can't believe they rip the claws off the animals and just toss them away like that! They MIGHT survive losing one claw, but how the heck are they meant to feed with no arms?! Just eat the whole damn crab and harvest fewer. Or just eat whatever crabs can be bred in captivity.

[@austingrathwol2961]

@@beckstheimpatient4135 They are also digging crabs so they tend to make burrows within the sand

[@NitsuSaiNeko]

Thanks for your input. It sounds stupid to be able to remove both claws. I also doubt how many of the commercial harvester actually paid enough attention to the way they remove the claws, hopefully they don't rush it and cause the crab to not be able to grow back.

[@brokentempest4268]

I've found videos talking about the rate of survival for these crabs after they lost one or both of their claws. Here's the result : 47% that had both claws removed died after declawing, as did 28% of single-claw amputees. 76% of these casualties is within the first 24 hours. So yeah, not very ethical as we would think

[@chriscaswell1212]

​@@brokentempest4268 Yeah, but if we just kill them, then their survival rate is 0% right? Just playing devils advocate here. I mean, when we eat a hamburger, we are eating a dead cow. I laugh at people who get squeemish at the thought of hunting and eating an animal or sea creature, yet will sit in a drive-thru line waiting for their bag of death to feed their families with haha.

[@EthosAtheos]

Sea urchins and eels are cautionary tails where I am from. Here in Maine in the 80's we had beaches covered in green urchins. You could walk along the beach and find them. In tidal rocks you'd find them so thick you couldn't see the rock. Glass eels could be seen in many rivers. They looked like worms crawling through a river next to rocks. I would catch adults when fishing all the time. Fast forward to the late 90s and the urchins are gone from beaches. I haven't even seen a shell on a beach in years. The fishery collapsed and because of invasive crab species it is likely to never rebound. The elver (glass eels) are still fished but only because of strict regulations of the fishery and restoration of habitats. Stocks of eel are dangerously depleted and the fishing doesn't stop. The Gulf of Maine is being over fished year over year. No one person or industry is to blame. The fisheries can't sustain the relentless fishing. I love seafood but almost never eat it because it is no longer ethical. Urchins, eel, shrimp and scallops these fisheries have collapsed or are being driven further into deep water to maintain the catch. Lobster is being over fished the warning signs are all there yet there is no will to slow the damage. We've got to be better at regulating fisheries or we will kill the oceans and ourselves.

[@delgadoazorin]

"No one person or industry is to blame" of course there are many culprits.

[@damien678]

Capitalism and the drive for Big Numbers are the real culprits. A majority of food we grow goes to landfills before even hitting store shelves. It's a critical lack of proper distribution, and commercial desire for Perfect Looking Food, that makes these industries so incredibly wasteful.

[@sheltr9735]

@@delgadoazorin That's what @EthosAtheos is saying...

[@W0pper1997]

I love seafood but almost never eat it. Last time I put a trout on the grill was 7-8 years ago...

[@nicoletteminajee605]

Cautionary tails? It's tale, as in story. I don't see how those seafood can be described as cautionary tales

[@JulesA5266]

I love this series. It teaches me so much about all these seemingly rare things. I’m glad this series exists!

[@guybrushthreepwood7612]

Unfortunately most of them were not rare at all but human behavior the last decades led to near extinction or the extreme decline in population. We only learn the hard way unfortunately…

[@Emeradora]

For some background on the sea urchin situation: they’re absolutely invasive, particularly in kelp forests off the coast of California. When people hunted sea otters to the brink of extinction from the 1700s to the early 1900s, urchins lost their primary natural predator. The otter population has since recovered, in what is nothing short of a miracle, but there still aren’t enough otters to make up for the sheer number of urchins that have been running (crawling) around, unchecked. Then, a few years ago, sea star wasting disease hit the west coast of the U.S. really hard, and the urchin population was once again able to explode. The truly vicious part of this cycle is that urchins over-consume kelp, but in the absence of kelp, urchins can still subsist on other food. However, as the video mentioned, urchins that didn’t grow up eating kelp are not always of suitable grade for consumption. So, we either need to lower our standards for urchin consumption, find another economically viable use for subpar gonads, or do some wide scale manual removal.

[@aurizzistic]

They taste like eating out a mermaid

[@space_guy_04]

Some of this eels comes from the Philippines. It cost just 1 usd a piece for export sizes already. One issue why prices in Japan is expensive is that Japanese tends to be strict in quality from fruits to livestocks that are imported. When in fact on tropical countries like Philippines, Indonesia etc some of this you can get for free. In fruits they tend to look in the external appearance more than the actual taste.

[@udhayakumarMN]

Such a materialized people..

[@Dakarn]

Some of them also come from Maine. They have eel farms and some man-made canals specifically for feeding fresh water for eel fisheries.

[@DiamondDog_]

Come to Indonesia, my house has lots of bananas, papaya mango, guava, coconuts etc. all of them are free most of them ripen and rot on trees or get eaten by bats.

[@GloomGaiGar]

@@udhayakumarMN You are part of the problem lol

[@user-fn2rt6lb1o]

@@udhayakumarMN Yeah but It’s rare to get food poisoning here and the average lifespans are longer…I'd rather live in a country where there are strict guidelines on food and drugs smh…🙄

[@ignition07]

Stone crab harvesting is a dark comedy. It’s like if a dude did bodybuilding to have bronze arms just to have them ripped off. “Eh, he’ll regenerate.” Okay, but is he supposed to eat with his FEET?!

[@goutamraoshab3777]

Be vegetarian 😉

[@seiyuokamihimura5082]

It's an 80 something percent death rate. Very dirty business.

[@Gwynbleiddsanity]

@@seiyuokamihimura5082 better than 100% death rate i suppose

[@kledus420smith8]

Some people with no arms learn to eat with their feet holding a fork or spoon

[@lunaasonininongry6297]

Lol it’s natural for their claws to grow like that. Stop acting like they pump weights to get that big. Plus they most likely to survive since it grows back within a year. Plus they don’t usually use their claws to protect themselves but they mostly rely on camouflage and their hard exterior to survive

[@marydecelle3896]

I admire how seriously the workers take their work. Its truly an art.

[@tuktuk1959]

0:27 I am Dutch, and my dad used to live in a time that these animals were abundant in Dutch rivers/channels/waterways. People used to catch them themselves because they were sometimes too abundant. Nowadays, because of pollution and other reasons they are unfortunately not that present anymore.

[@jeffro5032]

Being a spear fisherman , and just an all around hunt for seafood type a guy. Glad to see one of my favorites " Goose neck barnacles " make the list. I have a secrect place where I can grab as many as I want , 4" tall and as big around as my thumb. Soooo good!!

[@DrArchanaTurimella]

Happy for you!!

[@NivMizzet89]

Honestly, you sound like you're just doing your best to ensure even the last few habitats are getting murderered.

[@shino8854]

Hell, pigs feet has become expensive too, most people think they are revolting, but that's because they haven't tried them in a stew. On cold winter days, you would choose a hot pig trotter stew than crab claws, trust me, and I love seafood.

[@matt-lang]

It's good to know efforts are being made to prevent over-fishing/harvesting of some of these animals, proper regulation is really critical for the survival of many ecosystems.

[@James26285]

You'd think the government or SOMEONE would pay divers to get rid of the purple urchins. I mean they literally know and can see the exact issue that is causing the lack of kelp, and they must pass over thousands of those purple urchins. If there was a bounty per pound or something, it would then make sense for these divers to not only get the good eating urchins, but also the purple at the same time to make money, and in a few years it would make havesting the urchins we eat easier and more profitable

[@sammy709]

@@James26285 i thought the exact same, i was even thinking it might be worth it to just sell them as well? Like yeah they're less valuable, but seeing as there's SO many of them, and you'll be increasing future yield of the red urchins, wouldn't it be worth it?

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Except for China.

[@jesusr1997]

1:33 My man just called everyone a Cawk Sucker lmao

[@newboyinthetown]

😂

[@E.Mulchi]

Since most eels die before adulthood couldn't they just reintroduce some back into nature? The government could subsidize this so that the farmers wouldn't make a loss.

[@ilcommerciantediopere]

Government’s money are limited

[@valedits453]

@@ilcommerciantediopere no its not , they live the luxury , they dont need most of their money

[@alexrusso6503]

They are trying that but I think one of the biggest issues besides money is like most animals released from captivity is survival rate they need to survive being reintroduced to nature to breed

[@jakez5778]

@@valedits453 you’re forgetting that they like their money

[@valedits453]

@@jakez5778 yea so its not limited its only limited when it comes to us but they get whateve they want

[@justdoingitjim7095]

When I lived on the coast about every 5th bite I'd get fishing on the bottom was an eel. I hated hooking them, because they'd twist up on your line tangling everything and get everything slimy! I never ate one, but I have cut them up into chunks and used them for bait in my crab traps and for fishing too. They're tough and you can catch several fish on one chunk.

[@RobertBulldoza]

Yeah eel make great crab trap bait.

[@Ellerard]

Large portion of glass Eels are shipped from Maine in the US to Japan to be raised. The eels swim upstream to lay eggs and then young glass eels hatch and swim back to the ocean.

[@takareon]

The saying the Japanese chef said, just points out how much detail oriented Japan is, everyday they try to make their craft better and better, until the bar gets raised so high

[@nightshades7921]

Yeah, that's how their culture is according to what I've heard. I'm glad I don't have to be stressed about every little detail where I'm from.

[@paveantelic7876]

stfu cringe weeb

[@takareon]

@@paveantelic7876 watchu crying about? Uncultured fcc

[@paveantelic7876]

@@takareon japan's only culture is degeneracy and societal judgement

[@takareon]

@@paveantelic7876 sad story bro

[@CashFlowKweezy]

1:34 🤨🤔"Sir what did you call me??"

[@speedslasher778]

Crab caught for the second time: "Oh no.. not again.. you have no idea what i've been through"

[@zurknjurk]

Just a thought, if we forced (for example) sea urchins to be less expensive and more economically viable, would the the (probable) increased consumption of them aid in regrowth of kelp, to help stabilize the situation? almost sounds like they're an invasive species in the area and quickly overrunning their own food supply. Otherwise I see them dying out very quickly within a few years.

[@konigstiger3252]

Purple one are the invasive one and they don't give good food...

[@Eco2-z2w]

lol what???? ldiot

[@piplup10203854]

Dang I feel bad for the stone claw crabs 🥺 just cause they have the ability to regenerate doesn’t mean we should just harvest them and rip them off and leave them to die

[@MrGrumbles69]

Exactly, its pure cruelty. Maybe we should just randomly rip the arms off of the b*st%ds that do it to the poor crabs. Just because they are smaller than us it doesnt mean we should not be compassionate.

[@LunringNassar]

I get it, reason why we humans evolved above other animals is that we had compassion with each other, never left even a wounded friend behind. (caveman story look it up) But in this era such as the food and meat industry, compassion and ethics usually gets ignored, as much as I care for chickens, cows and pigs, I find it disturbing that theyre being treated horribly in farms. But what can I do? Stop a multi billion dollar industry that could ruin the economy and cause mass hunger?

[@piplup10203854]

@@LunringNassar Mhm, I'm with you there. But, what can I do, is the same mindset I have. I understand they may or may not feel the pain, I'm not a marine biologist or specialist and it's tough to actually gauge what they do or don't feel I just feel bad about the practice itself because we aren't using the full crab we just leave it in that state. Yeah I'm with you on finding it disturbing on how they're treated in farms and all that.

[@ElderGod4]

@@piplup10203854 its proven they do

[@piplup10203854]

@@ElderGod4 That’s so sad 🥲 I didn’t know for sure but it seemed like they did.

[@sethleach6867]

How is a crab supposed to grab food if both of its claws have been ripped off?

[@itakejess8876]

Only one claw is harvested. Unless they are big enough that they probably had a chance to breed at least once.

[@cancel.lgbtq.6892]

They can't! They will just become food for big fishes.

[@robertfandel9442]

They aren't shark's hunting prey they are mostly scavenging. Lookup the studies on mortality and claw removal. If done right they release the claw from the body on their own similar to certain lizards as escape mechanism.

[@zzzzzaaaa9999]

@@robertfandel9442 Information of mortality rates is in the video. It's not good.

[@kratos692]

They just assume Poseidon is going to feed them with his own hands.

[@MaishidaHD]

Just imagine getting captured to have both your arms ripped off and then getting tossed back into the ocean.

[@andrewbourgeois7253]

Tastes good, don't care.

[@ycaceres3357]

@@andrewbourgeois7253 until

[@amsour._.]

@@andrewbourgeois7253 something went wrong in your childhood

[@oba_tata]

17:45 we can tell straight up he is a nice guy by how he smiles after talking about his daughter

[@jbvap]

That doesn’t mean anything. Lol if you asked the btk killer about his daughter he’d smile too.

[@akun10years10]

Uhh gross 🤢

[@ciaranelson5185]

Damn the crab claws was crazy. Imagine having your arms ripped off and then being thrown back into the ocean

[@ruben8395]

But why do they throw them back

[@ciaranelson5185]

@@ruben8395 because their legs will grow back eventually. A lot of them will die becuase they have no way of defending themsevles

[@Alex-rl4uy]

Lmao the rock crab guy saying he’s only been “bit” a few times was gold

[@laurahardy9420]

I love how everyone is talking only about crabs and eels. Why isn't anyone talking about how they should be harvesting the gonads from the purple urchins instead of the red ones. Sure they may not taste as good, but there are just way too many of them

[@NazriB]

Lies again? Soccer Football

[@sophiejones304]

I was thinking the same thing. If the red are fewer and they are still harvesting them how are they able to compete with with the purple. The solution would be to harvest everything and somehow make use of the undesirable purple until the Red overtakes the purple

[@ihaveacookie4226]

You answered your own question. Now if you figured out how to make the less desirable ones taste just as good or better for cheaper they would go after the purple till they started costing as much as the red.

[@laurahardy9420]

@@ihaveacookie4226 At least the purple urchin population would be kept under control, rather than getting so numerous that they overrun entire kelp forests

[@jokc8]

I was thinking the same thing. Was the harvesting of the red urchins a factor in the growth of the purple urchins? Harvesting the reds could have meant less competition for the purples and their growth increased in waves. Since the purple ones aren’t being harvested, that means they don’t have an additional predator compared to the reds. I think they mentioned that the purple took over, but what if the reality was the reds were being over harvested for the purples to grow.

[@NghtMonster]

I mean if a crab has had their claws removed repeatedly, over and over again😢 just eat the whole damn crab!

[@UsulPrincess]

Right? Why waste it? That poor crab can’t eat without the claws anyway.

[@mikedanielespeja6128]

"Why are we here? Just to suffer..." -some other shield organism who got his arms removed

[@Jzwiz]

@@UsulPrincess they dont use the big claws for eating they use the tiny ones, big ones are for defense

[@Merahki3863]

Considering that their population is dropping, if they didn't throw them back into the water they'd probably be endangered by now.

[@SoulshaBoy]

Only the limbs and the joint of where the legs attach to the body are edible, the rest of its body is mostly inedible or tastes awful. Most of the crab would be thrown away since you can’t eat it.

[@pringlized]

I worked on an urchin boat deck out of Santa Barbara in college. They were plentiful back then. What a shame the kelp forest are being eaten to near nothing. Working off the channel islands was a way better office than anything else I could have done at that time. Long live Sands and Devereux Beaches. Those kelp beds kept the sharks out when we surfed.

[@wren_.]

what if they just took the purple urchins to so the red urchins and the kelp would have more room instead of just not taking them and causing their population to explode

[@VirtualR]

It's the cooking skill not the eel itself that makes it expensive. In Melbourne, Australia you can catch eel in almost every river or creek, every single time you go there. Targeting them you can use raw steak pieces and will get one every time usually within an hour, but they are often a common by-catch when using other baits. They are essentially the same eel, almost no difference, can be cooked the exact same ways. The old timers loved them and knew how to cook and eat eel properly, but generations since then usually don't like eating them and see them as a nuisance by-catch.

[@damien678]

I'm a younger aussie and I'm honestly pretty salty at how limited the range of meat and vegs I was taught was ok to eat was. Especially when thinking about even the last 100 years and what and how people used to eat. Not to mention even further back in history...

[@donaldblankenship8057]

It's an elver (glass eel) not a stinking river eel.

[@VirtualR]

@@donaldblankenship8057 Glass eel just means baby eel. All eel come from the sea and migrate to rivers. Eel can't breed in rivers.

[@Brent-jj6qi]

I’ve had bbq eel for pretty cheap before and it was really good

[@todd5purlock497]

"these crabs have a mind of their own" you just blew my God damn mind..

[@xxbioklismxx1850]

My family and I would go fishing and they would catch many eels in a day and grandma would prep and cook them. Now I'm wondering if we were eating our retirements away😂😂

[@h8GW]

Well, you would have been if you could store eel like gold......but you can't, so don't feel too bad.

[@dcar6530]

you can open a restaurant if you know how to cook the eel properly, you can make money.

[@randomcomputer7248]

From the UK. When young we used to go fishing and liked to eat our catch. One day we caught a Common Eel and decided to give it a go, it was pretty tasty and was a bit like salty chicken.

[@mitravindadeshmukh6056]

Declawing of crabs is the process whereby one or both claws of a crab are manually detached before the return of the live crab to the water, as practiced in the fishing industry worldwide. Crabs commonly have the ability to regenerate lost limbs after a period of time, and thus declawing is viewed as a potentially more sustainable method of fishing.[1] Due to the time it takes for a crab to regrow lost limbs, however, whether or not the practice represents truly sustainable fishing is still a point of scientific inquiry, and the ethics of declawing are also subject to debates over pain in crustaceans. While not always fatal, declawing can substantially alter the chances of a crab's survival in the wild.[2] Declawing is a controversial practice; some jurisdictions have banned it partially or completely, while others only allow the crab's claws to be harvested commercially.

[@FighterHayabusa-NES]

This is probably the most interesting food based doc I have seen in years.

[@dertythegrower]

Appreciate this one.. respect to the sustainable farmers.

[@chevychase3103]

Some of these children don't understand the word sustainable they just want a virtue signal! Lions and tigers and bears oh my!

[@AkiZukiLenn]

wait what ? they literally eat all young eels , there are no more breeding .

[@Gwynbleiddsanity]

@@AkiZukiLenn "all" ok

[@uncleruckus3930]

@@AkiZukiLenn China is worse

[@perculated7666]

Nice seeing you here fellow cannabis enthusiast! Lol

[@dawnglianapachuau6433]

Feel bad for the crabs, how can they expect them to survive if they remove both the claws.

[@mattiemclean9882]

The ocean was never intended to feed the wealthy. No wonder Mother Nature punishes these countries with tsunami's!

[@GloomGaiGar]

I mean it's that or be completely cooked with literally zero chance of survival

[@mattiemclean9882]

@@GloomGaiGar Would you rather be cooked whole and scream for 60 seconds or have both your arms broken and left to fend for yourself? Which would you prefer sir?

[@TheGunnCat]

I have been a fishmonger since 1992, and the best thing I have ever eaten or sold are Nantucket and Cape Cod Bay Scallops. In 1992 I would sell them for $10 a pound. Today the run over $50 a pound. As far as stone crab goes, I have eaten many a pound, but if given the choice I would always choose 4/7 American (not Russian) Red King Crab.

[@wittwer427]

Red king is good. But dungeness is fantastic.

[@williamdunsmore3854]

King crab might be OK but King crap? Not so much ;-)

[@ARCSTREAMS]

why do russian crabs offend you?

[@TheGunnCat]

@@williamdunsmore3854 thanks man, must be thinking about their diet.

[@TheGunnCat]

@@wittwer427 everyone has their favorites!

[@nicstroud]

22:22 "This ultimately raises the price of rare, premium, gonads", is a sentence you don't hear every day. 😆

[@sakii2254]

*Rare, premium, G O N A D S*

[@ataraxei]

we have gooseneck barnacles in japan too, and we call them “kame no te” which means turtle hand since they look like little turtle legs/hands! the dinosaur feet was cute though too

[@tiredallthetime1636]

Taking both claws seems cruel to me. How are they supposed to eat or defend themselves with no claws

[@NotaKamalaFan]

They don't care. Their attitude is FTW don't get in the way of my money.

[@nightshades7921]

Very cruel 😭

[@txddyfarquh69]

16:59 now I see why New Zealand's Sea Urchin is so expensive, yet our families freely dive for them nearly on a regular

[@jbvap]

Eel doesn’t sound incredibly appetizing to me, but boy the finished product looks good. That stone crab looks great too, I didn’t realize they typically just harvest one claw.

[@sakii2254]

Eel is actually pretty good, it has a texture like a firm white-fleshed fish, but the skin can seem a bit slimy or rubbery-looking. Overall the taste is pretty good.

[@Mark-td4gl]

The best smoked seafood on the planet - is smoked eel. Their flesh is just made for smoking and nothing else. Horseradish sauce and brown bread are the best accompaniments. How much does smoked eel cost in the USA? (either whole or fillets).

[@GreenFishhTitanUS]

This video sheds light on the fascinating and often overlooked world of high-priced seafood. From the painstaking process of cultivating Japanese eels to the perilous harvest of gooseneck barnacles, each delicacy's steep price tag is justified by its rarity, demand, and the incredible effort required to bring it to market. It's not just about taste; it's about centuries-old traditions, environmental challenges, and the sheer dedication of those who make these exquisite foods possible. It's a reminder that luxury can come from the depths of the ocean as much as from any other corner of the world.

[@joaoc2178]

Barnacles in Portugal are very easy to find, everyone has tried. It is a bit pricy, every year more, it tastes like ocean water. But it is acccessible in terms of pricing

[@ultraninja5783]

I'm just wondering how a crab is supposed to survive and get enough food worth both arms removed, atleast with 1 arm it can still catch stuff and defend itself

[@fameworks5622]

So how dose the crab defend itself without any claws?

[@Tekset62]

It doesn't because it cant. It can only do what its able to do.

[@chevychase3103]

Get a grip guys they only take one claw!

[@hustler212]

@@chevychase3103 yeah, and 59% die after removal of only one claw ...

[@OfficialSamuelC]

@@chevychase3103 No, they take both claws. 9:12

[@Gwynbleiddsanity]

@@hustler212 better than 100% deathrate by being harvested as whole

[@eraserewrite]

Sea Urchin is invasive in Northern California. If you ever KZbin for North California Half Moon Bay foraging, you’ll see there are thousands of them on the coast to be harvested. Still, they’re so delicate that they can be very expensive to ship. But if you’re paying for more than $10 for a whole cluster of uni gonads in California, you’re overpaying.

[@Cuticatie]

Not all sea urchins are harvestable... Most are not. Only the red sea urchins have at least decent market price for their gonads...

[@YingofDarkness]

Different types of urchins. The video itself specifically mentioned that the valuable urhins are red ones while it is the purple ones that are invading N.California which just goes to show how fucked we are as a species. They could sell the purple ones for less and keep the red ones as a delicacy but nope. Let's just focus on the red ones. I know the purple ones don't have the same taste, but I'm sure there is a way for them to sell if anybody gave a damn to try

[@Dazulolwarrior]

you're already overpaying by mentioning california

[@sheltr9735]

Once upon a time, I was on a team called the "Nads" We just loved to cheer ourselves on! "Go Nads go! Go Nads go!"

[@colinthiel1283]

I feel sad about the eels being extinct, in new Zealand eels can be found in rivers and you can catch them easily at night, I only catch about 3-4 a year. I hope they don't become endangered in the future.

[@NivMizzet89]

Given that there's a *lot* of people and a *lot* of problems threatening the species (and nature in general). even people catching '3 or 4' or year is still going to add up.

[@fitpitTvdogs]

Thousands n thousands of eels in the rivers by me in the Welsh valley's!

[@dianet3994]

Your transitions between one seafood and another are fantastic. Just here to say that. 💖

[@UnCreativeDeconstructionism]

Sea urchin genitalia. Just here to say that. ♥️

[@koraptd6085]

Yo, guys from Business Insider please make a high res wallpaper out of the shot in 2:46. Loved the video.

[@overanDownUnder]

Taking both claws from the crabs aren’t cool. One I understand. Two, that’s just being greedy.

[@ThePandaPhotographer]

So pescatarian is actually eating meat as you said you’re using pigs feet to feed these crabs so the question will stand.

[@UsulPrincess]

I don’t think a health-conscious person would eat bottom feeders. It’s still a really good point though.

[@chevychase3103]

@@UsulPrincess since the food's been going to the illegals us poor folks eat any gosh darn thing we get our hands on. I mean our claws!

[@Merahki3863]

That's like saying a lion might as well not be considered a carnivore because it eats herbivores.

[@peytonmanningsforehead985]

@@UsulPrincess why wouldn't they?

[@UsulPrincess]

@@peytonmanningsforehead985 Because bottom feeders, while technically seafood, are extremely unhealthy and toxic to your body in the long-run (Catfish, Shrimp, Lobster, Mollusks, etc.) They eat all of the animal waste at the bottom of the seabed as their main source of food. Non-bottom feeders eat algae, plankton, and smaller fish.

[@Prairielander]

That eel pond seems overcrowded. Also what would happen if you fell in there?

[@outandaboutafterthestorm]

It's not crowded, it's crowded only in the feeding net, they have nets with big enough holes for the eels to get in and get out. The feeding net is used because it's the only way they can see if the food are all eaten, if they just drop the whole food in the pound, leftovers foods can spoil the water and spread diseases.

[@pch1370]

You would probably end up very slimy.

[@winterdaisy5610]

Watched the film "the cue"? 🤣🤣🤣

[@habbo958]

the amazing smokiness from the eel comes from the fan under the worker's armpit

[@komatsu-theguardianoftheca6031]

😭

[@krmdhn]

😂😭

[@tobyihli9470]

I don’t see why someone doesn’t gather all those purple urchins so they don’t eat all the kelp? They talk about how dead it is that there is only a fraction of how much kelp is still there, yet they just swim right by thousands of purple urchins. Somebody, even if it’s just fish and wildlife agents, otta pick all those purple urchins up! Duh! Sell permits, or raise the price of permits, to cover the expense of the purple urchin divers.

[@garethlore]

just curious, can they not build some kind of floating dock on those islands for harvesting barnacles so they can more safely get off and on their boats?

[@sutapurachina1758]

The barnacle harvester guy lost his knife to the waves

[@asoncalledvoonch2210]

16:44 If sea star decline causes urchin increases, why not release sea stars to the area to keep unwanted urchin species in check by preying on them ?

[@Gravelbike360]

"Fried egg it will takes years to master."- Japan

[@tommynorthwood]

It takes seven years to learn to crack the egg...

[@MrLanternland]

It takes at least 25 years to learn to boil water superbly.

[@ren4809]

It takes a lifetime to learn how to cook the egg

[@Phillmagroin]

Fuckin japan

[@hpnfjudy]

As ridiculous as it sounds, that's japanese culminating cultural effort striving for perfection. They have this never ending desire to make their products better than yesterday. Cockiness that you've learned everything is what keeps people from improvement.

[@2dronetek2]

I had no idea stone crab fishing was so cruel!! 🤨 Yanking off the only way the crab can defend and feed itself is beyond f'ed up. Use the whole thing or don't use it at all.

[@SivistheoneArt]

It's unfortunate that they throw the body of the stone crabs away. Without their claws they dont last long at all. Not even over night.

[@di7867]

True, they starve to death

[@kkirschkk]

They can and do regrow and survive, not all of them mind you but its better for the long term survival of the fisheries and the population to thrown them back without there claws.

[@peacefulshades]

@@kkirschkk it takes 3 years to regrow. They still need to eat and protect themselves in the meantime.

[@Jason_Quan]

@@kkirschkk crabs can't eat without claws. Their legs do not grasp food like a lobster

[@kkirschkk]

@@Jason_Quan they can, just what they can eat gets limited. Its not great for them but its better than all of them being eaten.

[@SarcasticSloth69]

22:27 the sad thing is, the reason why the kelp forests are coming back is most likely due to Kulana being forced into lockdown. The inactivity from humans meant that the waters were less polluted and allowed the kelp to grow back in areas it couldn’t before

[@Bear._.Channel]

They got me dying when I saw them throw the baby eels 😂

[@nocomment2468]

From each example, it’s clear that sustainability means longevity of industry. I wish that this concept were more important to commercial industries.

[@riccardo5753]

Its crazy how many giant sea urchins there are in cali, they are prized in southern Italy and there are very few left due to over fishing

[@Smileythesilent]

The difference between this crabbing environment and the Deadliest Catch is ridiculous. I know these guys will have bad weather days also, but still!

[@xpump876]

WTF @ 7:17 mark -- Are stone crabs stripped of their Claws and thrown back in the water to die ..?

[@definitelynotthatgworl5090]

0:07 bro that poor crab was alive

[@genebodjtb]

Seems like many of these food sources can be reasonably farmed... the purple urchins need to be controlled so that the kelp beds can grow back.

[@Lonewolf_1313]

Good video 😃👍

[@MrCreeper069]

I thought they was playing when they said people eat Barnacles.😂😂

[@cwill2127]

Yeah Looks like you’re eating pebbles

[@alexandresofman3600]

When I saw them at sushi place for the first time my sister said that the yellow things are brains of the sea porcupine. Later I found it’s actually gonads, or reproduction organ. I didn’t like them at first but as soon as you add in the rice a bit of soy sauce and chew really thoroughly to mix everything up, then they become so delicious in your mouth it blew my mind! I never tried them without the rice, but something is telling me I won’t like them. If any of you reading this and either never tried one out of fear of how they will taste - don’t fret. Just follow my advice and you’ll love it too.

[@wolverinefangowings]

Imagine meeting some girl in a bar... "I'm a sales rep for Pepsi. What do you do?" "I clean sea urchin gonads." "Ok fine don't tell me."

[@MrSoarman]

I am an ocean diver for 50 years, I have tried sea urchin 4 times in very fresh form, you can have them, very iodine awful taste.

[@totallynottrademarked5279]

Good old humans. We are running out of eels to eat and destroying their habitat. Yet never once does it occur to us to protect the habitat or reduce consumption.

[@E.Mulchi]

They could even just release some of those raised eels back into nature. Most of those glass eels would have died before adulthood in nature.

[@chaosbringer5248]

How would the stone crab eat when it loses both claws?

[@kratos692]

Through its bloody mouth!

[@definitelynotthatgworl5090]

@@kratos692 needs to pick up the food

[@superbot6821]

Imagine being one of those crabs, one day you're chilling and then a box catches you, they take your claws then yeet you back to the water

[@umararshad2601]

Japanese have learned one art which is above all, and its called Conning People, they think adding "it takes 100 years to master" will elevate the price of any commodity to 1000x.. they are very successful till now...

[@stevenJEDI3]

The Japanese are some of the best fish expert’s on the planet if I can’t get it right I don’t think anyone else can

[@JustTryingToGetAYTPlayButton]

Except for the eels, you’d be better off just fishing for them yourself it’s a fun activity gets you some great seafood and saves a lot of money

[@kc-vf4lp]

In New Zealand we just go out and dive for sea urchins (we call kina ) ourselves, the biggest cost is gas to get us to the sea We do have commercial divers that go out but that's for export and for overpriced sea urchins in the supermarket.

[@w1seguys]

Now it makes sense why the Sea Urchin ceviche at Dorsia is so expensive!

[@TizonaAmanthia]

it makes me wonder what the marketability is for those smaller invasive urchins....like...sure they're smaller, but is their gonads any good? it sure is available! AND they're negatively impacting the better ones. so....perhaps collecting the invasive also...

[@GloomGaiGar]

it said the invasive ones don't usually have good gonads if any

[@TizonaAmanthia]

@@GloomGaiGar yeah, I did really only take away a general "not as good" but maybe the real message is "not good enough."

[@edg3818]

Eel is definitely my favorite fish, I'm sad it's getting so pricey.

[@roseerdlen7955]

🤢

[@viscache1]

I ordered the eel once and was generally unimpressed….until I got the bill….then I was DEpressed!

[@theskywalker8416]

i really dont understand why the price is so high ... Like yeah it is normally double to triple the price of other fishes but no way it go near $90 for one meal in where i live

[@lebbeus]

@@viscache1 then you must have tried the bad UK jelly eel. To enjoy eel, you must try the Japanese Unagi Don, the best 🤤

[@ascendantindigo271]

Wait a second...EEL'S are "Fish" ? For a person that loves Marine Biology... I'm dumb as hell....

[@marty5822]

Yes. They are incredibly expensive. Because they'd have to pay me a million to eat that stuff.

[@joshuapatrick682]

Hope you enjoy seafood because with how much industrial overfishing we’ve managed to kill 40% of the world’s salt water fisheries in 50 ish years, only 30 more years to go! We can do it it! We can make fish a thing of the past completely in my natural lifespan! Imagine how cool an ocean of squid would be!

[@everyone2030]

My dad owns a farm in Indonesia, some of the really wet grounds can have eels and anyone can just try to catch them and eat it for dinner. Its not as good as unagi but its still yummy.

[@RV-in2mc]

We've eaten everything now there's a price tag on it but once extinction occurs, priceless.

[@briezzy365]

They need otters to save the kelp forests in Santa Barbara

[@amirmoezz]

You forgot the Caviar, the golden food of rich.

[@ferretappreciator]

Caviar is so basic

[@LanternFlies]

Technically Urchin roe is caviar. Good caviar is dependent on many factors and can be expensive from over $1000 down to just $10. Having had the $10 and the $150 I can tell you, there's a difference and it is definitely worth it if you are into exotic meals.

[@amirmoezz]

Urchin Roe is not a Caviar. Caviar only comes from large fishes such as sturgeon. A good quality Caviar is being sold over 30000$, same price of gold, hence the name the golden food. A more rare variation of Caviar such as Strottarga Bianco Caviar would cost over 100,000$ per kilogram.

[@rogrambo]

The math doesn't add up people. YOU ARE TELLING ME THOSE EELS ARE 35,000 PER KILO AND PEOPLE ARE COOKING POUNDS OF THEM AT A TIME ON THE SIDE OF THE STREET? EVEN IF A PLATE OF THEM WAS 91.00, A KILO IS WHAT 10 PLATES AT THE MOST? THAT'S $910. AND YOU PAID 35000 A KILO FOR IT?

[@erickquinones1095]

So the purple sea urchin are a threat to red urchin because they are eating 95 percent of sea kelp. So the answer is to keep harvesting red urchin, which is allowing more purple urchin to take hold and eat even more kelp. The logic of people is beyond reasoning at times

[@josephb2259]

I swear the Japanese turn everything into an art

[@tanthaman]

They destroy the planet

[@GodBimmer]

@@tanthaman China destroyed anything

[@devlynp]

art of destruction lol - the amount of trash, plastics, and adverse impact to the ecosystem are insane. You only see the high lights youtube clips

[@josephb2259]

@@devlynp that wasn't what I was talking about. I was talking about how they turn even the simplest thing into an art form, for example the cooking of eels. Also, the statement you typed out would imply to every other country in the world.

[@adarsh2879]

Reason japan having one of the best sea food. Japenese are so creative.

[@snakewhitcher4189]

I lived near a lake in Iowa. Eels would normally bite my legs when I swim in the lake. I have nightmares about eels biting my legs to this day. I would prefer a crab bite to an eel bite. Eel bites hurt more than crab bites. They don't have crabs where I grew up. But we have all kinds of eels. Lake Chitaqua in Iowa has no urchins. Gonad means testicle to people where I grew up.

[@seadog915]

Snake Whitcher, Gonad means testicle everywhere! They're just too classy to say NUTS!

[@TheTwilightofheaven]

Cedar Lake i remember had eels that would bite me all the time.

[@grammydayao7581]

I love Japan, the people are so nice, their clothes are beautiful, they do such a great job taking care of their people ❤️