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Different Types Of Sea Foods
The sea foods are categorized in the following five main groups:
- Fish
- Molluscs
- Crustaceans
- Other aquatic animals
- Aquatic plants and Microphytes
Each of these groups is further divided into the different subgroups. For better understanding, it is best to discover each of them in detail.
1. Fish
Fish is divided into four subgroups viz. marine pelagic, marine demersal, diadromous and freshwater. The main sea foods in marine pelagic can be divided into predator and forage fish. The predator fish constitutes of sea foods like shark, tuna, swordfish, marlin, salmon and mackerel. The forage fish includes sea foods like sardines, herring, sprats, menhaden and anchovies.
Some sea foods of demersal fish include flatfish, cod, stingrays and grouper and diadromous fish is constitutes of salmons, eels, lampreys and shad. The freshwater fishes are more used for fish farming and the sea foods are tilapia, carp, trout and catfish.
2. Molluscs
Molluscs are divided into three subgroups viz. bivalves, gastropods and cephalopods. The important bivalve sea foods are oysters, mussels, cockles and scallops. They are also referred as the clams and are the main diet of the coastal communities. Gastropods are sea snails are univalve and the essential sea foods in this subgroup are conch, abalone, limpets, periwinkles and whelks.
Cephalopods are not having a shell. The most popular sea foods in this vital subgroup are cuttlefish, octopus and squid. They are consumed in innumerable cultures. Squid is more popular in Japan, Britain and Mediterranean countries where squid is famously known as calamari. Cuttlefish is a delicacy in Italy and dried cuttlefish which is eaten in shredded form is a snack food of East Asians.
3. Crustaceans
Crustaceans are divided into four subgroups: shrimps and prawns, crabs, lobsters and krill. There are countless species of shrimps and prawns and different types of species are adapted to varied habitat. Today, the shrimp and prawn farming is going on a very large scale globally. Crabs are also integrated with wide species and are opted for fisheries business. Lobsters are larger than crabs and shrimps and besides lobster farming is also quite famous. Krill are known as baby shrimps. They are highly eaten as seafood in Russia and Japan. Krill fisheries are extensive worldwide since krill oil is very useful as a sea food since it is rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
4. Other Aquatic Animals
This group consists of four subgroups: aquatic mammals, aquatic reptiles, echinoderms and jellyfish. Sea mammals are very diverse containing 128 species. Whale meat is a costly sea food and is harvested largely by legal non-commercial hunters. The fluke meat of whale is selling at 200 dollars per kilogram in Japan. In Japan and Faroe Islands dolphin is regarded as seafood. And seals are important food sources for Nunavut and Alaska.
Sea turtles in aquatic reptiles are eaten as seafood in many parts of the globe. Chinese consider it as an exotic delicacy. Countless coastal communities worldwide regard it as a rich protein source and often gather sea turtle eggs. The sea foods in echinoderms consist of sea urchins, sea cucumbers and rarely starfishes. Sea cucumbers are commercially farmed in China. The gonads of male and female urchins known are corals or roe are delicacies in many countries. And in jellyfish only the scyphozoan type is harvested for food specifically in Southeast Asia.
5. Aquatic Plants And Microphytes
This group is divided into two subgroups viz. seaweed and microphytes. Seaweeds are rich in protein and fiber and are extensively used in coastal cuisines. They constitute the essential diet of Korea, Japan and China since ages. They are also consumed in many European societies, western Norway and Iceland, western and Northern Ireland, Wales, Atlantic coast in France besides Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Some species of Microphytes that are used as seafood is Spirulina. The farming of seaweed as well as Spirulina is going on in an extensive form worldwide.
Nevertheless, the common fish species that are used as sea foods are divided texture and flavor wise into varied groups like mild, moderate and full flavor besides delicate, medium and firm texture. To name a few of them we can enlist blue crab, spanner crab, eastern oyster, pacific oyster, black sea bass, crayfish, rockfish, drum, tilefish, halibut, conch, monkfish, pompano, moi, yellow perch, skate, sablefish, dogfish, mahimahi, kingklip, opah, cobia, blue marlin, escolar, Chinook, barracuda and many more. Although there are 32000 fish species universally, but only a small number is eaten by humans.
