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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Urine in Pangasius fish


fish pangas in france urine fed

Cheap cheap fish! The above is an ad (from one of the large supermarket chains in France) for the fish known as Pangas (also called, Pangasius, Vietnamese River Cobbler, Basa Fish and White Catfish, Tra, Gray Sole). It was a reminder to tell you about the dangers of this strange but increasingly popular fish. I learned about them and how they’re raised a while ago on an informative documentary online here: Documentary about Pangas. (which is in French. If you don’t speak French, read below.)

Would the French call it Poisson ou poison?
Industrially farmed in Vietnam along the Mekong River, Pangas or whatever they’re calling it, has only been recently introduced to the French market. However, in a very short amount of time, it has grown in popularity in France. The French are slurping up Pangas like it’s their last meal of soup noodles. They are very, very affordable (cheap), are sold in filets with no bones and they have a neutral (bland) flavor and texture; many would compare it to cod and sole, only much cheaper. But as tasty as some people may find it, there’s, in fact, something hugely unsavory about it. I hope the information provided here will serve as very important information for you and your future choices. Here’s why I think it is better left in the shops (and not on your dinner plates):

pile of fish
1. Pangas are teeming with high levels of poisons and bacteria. (industrial effluents, arsenic, and toxic and hazardous by-products of the growing industrial sector, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDT and its metabolites (DDTs), metal contaminants, chlordane-related compounds (CHLs), hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs), and hexachlorobenzene (HCB)). The reasons are that the Mekong River is one of the most polluted rivers on the planet and this is where pangas are farmed and industries along the river dump chemicals and industrial waste directly into it. To Note: a friend lab tests these fish and tells us to avoid eating them due to high amounts of contamination. Regardless of the reports and recommendations against selling them, the supermarkets still sell them to the general public knowing they are contaminated.

2. They freeze Pangas in contaminated river water. Ew.
dirty river water at farms for pangas
3. Pangas are not environmentally sustainable, a most unsustainable food you could possibly eat– “Buy local” means creating the least amount of environmental harm as possible. This is the very opposite end of the spectrum of sustainable consumerism. Pangas are raised in Vietnam. Pangas are fed food that comes from Peru (more on that below), their hormones (which are injected into the female Pangas) come from China. (More about that below) and finally, they are transported from Vietnam to France. That’s not just a giant carbon foot print, that’s a carbon continent of a foot print.

4. There’s nothing natural about Pangas – They’re fed dead fish remnants and bones, dried and ground into a flour, from South America, manioc (cassava) and residue from soy and grains. This kind of nourishment doesn’t even remotely resemble what they eat in nature. But what it doesresemble is the method of feeding mad cows (cows were fed cows, remember?) What they feed pangas is completely unregulated so there are most likely other dangerous substances and hormones thrown into the mix. The pangas grow at a speed light (practically!): 4 times faster than in nature…so it makes you wonder what exactly is in their food? Your guess is as good as mine.

pangas are injected with dehydrated pee from pregnant women

5. Pangas are Injected with Hormones Derived from Urine – I don’t know how someone came up with this one out but they’ve discovered that if they inject female Pangas with hormones made from the dehydrated urine of pregnant women, the female Pangas grow much quicker and produce eggs faster (one Panga can lay approximately 500,000 eggs at one time). Essentially, they’re injecting fish with hormones (they come all of the way from a pharmaceutical company in China) to speed up the process of growth and reproduction. That isn’t good. Some of you might not mind eating fish injected with dehydrated pee so if you don’t good for you, but just consider the rest of the reasons to NOT eat it.

6. You get what you pay for – and then some. Don’t be lured in by insanely cheap price of Pangas. Is it worth risking your health and the health of your family?

7. Buying Pangas supports unscrupulous, greedy evil corporations and food conglomerates that don’t care about the health and well-being of human beings. They only are concerned about selling as many pangas as possible to unsuspecting consumers. These corporations only care about selling and making more money at whatever cost to the public.

8. Pangas will make you sick – If (for reasons in #1 above) you don’t get immediately ill with vomiting, diarrhea and effects from severe food poisoning, congratulations, you have an iron stomach! But you’re still ingesting POISON not poisson.Final important note: Because of the prodigious amount of availability of Pangas, be warned that they will certainly find their way into other foods: surimi (those pressed fish things, imitation crab sticks), fish sticks, fish terrines, and probably in some pet foods. (Warn your dogs and cats and hamsters and gerbils and even your pet fish!)

Article extracted from:
http://www.dietmindspirit.org/2008/01/30/why-you-shouldnt-eat-this-fish-pangas-pangasius-vietnamese-river-cobbler-white-catfish-gray-sole/

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

15 types of Hake fish products processed at our plant

Hake fish comes from the same family as Cod and Haddock but it is tastier as compared to other whitefish. It is a small fish of averaging 1 to 8 lb. In weight, but which has been known to grow up to 60 lbs. There are different species of Hake found over the world but Seawork offers the best Hake fish found in South Africa which is known as Merluccius Capensis.

Calories present in Hake fish: 75; carbohydrates: 0.5 g; fat: 0.9 g; protein: 18 g. it is also rich in calcium, phosphorus and potassium.

Seawork offers a wide variety of Hake products. There are around 15 types of Hake products that are processed at our plant such as Hake fillets, moulded loins, Hake skin on, Hake skin off, etc. All our Hake fish products are filleted by hand which guarantee our clients that top quality hake products are being offered to them.

We give our clients a wide range of facilities like, they can order as per the grading they need the Hake products to be processed. Also, we can do our own packaging with our labeling on the cartons such as Name of product, Latin name, EU approval number, Net weight, Best before and expiry date, Batch number, Address of manufacturer, EAN 128 bar code.FAO Area, Storage conditions and Product of Namibia.

For more information, please feel free to visit our website:

Or check out our online video on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqwI4_e1u9o

Blue Shark

Apart from Hake fish products, Seawork is pleased to offer you other variety of fish species such as Blue shark. The processing of Blue shark is almost same as Hake fillets but with certain differences.

The Latin name of Blue shark is Prionace Glauca. Blue shark is caught in South-East Atlantic, by bottom trawlers. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a large fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net that is used for trawling is called a trawl. Bottom trawling is trawling (towing a trawl, which is a fishing net) along the sea floor.

Processing of Blue Shark is as follows:
The frozen gutted and headed Blue shark is skinned and trimmed according to customer specifications. It is then sorted, packed and blast frozen in accordance with good commercial practice to attain a product temperature of -18ºC or below. Skinning is done according to customer’s requirements.
The Blue shark is then coat with a protective layer known as the glazing process. It is glazed at 5-10% (according to customer’s specifications). Then, the trunks are packed individually wrapped (IWP) with high density foiling sheet.

The product can be best used before 24 months from the date of production. No sealing is done as Hake fillets and the weight of the carton is 25kg net.

For the packaging and labeling, if you want to put your own labeling, we are at your disposition or we can do our own packaging which include the name of product, Latin name, EU approval number, Best before and expiry date, address of manufacturer, EAN 128 bar code, FAO area, storage condition and product of Namibia.

For more information about Hake frozen fillets or any other products based of Hake, please feel free to view our website on:

Or our online video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqwI4_e1u9o

Seawork catches 10 metric tons of Hake fish per annum

Seawork being the best hake fish supplier catches approximately 10.000 metric tons of whole round hake per annum. Our daily production capacity is ± 25 metric tons of hake fish. As written in our previous blogs, all hake fish are filleted by hand in order to ensure that the best quality products are being offered to our clients.

Seawork also respect green marketing. As Economic growth of our business is accompanied by environmental balance of the oceanic ecosystem, it is therefore inevitable to sustain well grown fishing populations and numerous measures to do so have been taken by the Namibian government and most Namibian fishing associations and companies.
Since consumers are becoming more and more aware of the importance of sustainable resources the Namibian Government and fishing companies are striving to become MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) awarded.

Since sustainability is a big issue to SEAWORK, we have already been accredited with the MSC - Chain of Custody certificate. This entitles us to handle MSC certified fish from sustainable resources all over the globe, and we are making sure, every hake fish product either frozen hake fillet or hake fillets leaving our factory can be traced from raw material level to the individual packing and sealing the product itself.

Furthermore the Namibian fishing industry is bound to very strict restrictions, e.g. TAC (Total allowable catch quotas) which ensures the ecological balance of the population during the fishing season.

In addition, Trawling for Hake fish is not permitted in less than 200 m depth, in order not to affect other species natural habitat and to minimize by-catch.
The WWF states that Namibian and South African Hake fish is not being overfished and is therefore a good choice when buying fish.

For more information, please feel free to visit our website:

Or check out our online video on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqwI4_e1u9o