this is the most humane way to kill a
fish stabbing it in the brain and
cutting it open to bleed it out I know
it looks gruesome but trust me it's
better than the alternative for the fish
and for you most fish are killed the
same way scooped out of the water thrown
in a bucket of ice and left to suffocate
to death their brains are really
different from ours which makes it hard
to figure out if and how they feel pain
studies are conclusive on one thing
though
fish do feel stress and try to fight or
flee stressful situations it can take
anywhere from five minutes to a few
hours of struggling in the open air
before a fish finally dies and while
they're trying to escape their blood
streams fill with stress hormones like
cortisol and adrenaline plus all that
movement causes lactic acid to flood
their muscles the same chemicals humans
produce when we exercise when a fish is
struggling to death it's actually
exercising when it's suffocating it's
exercising this is Andrew choy an
attorney and former commercial fisherman
whose real passion is teaching people
how to properly kill fish that lactic
acid buildup in the muscle tissue
actually has real consequences at a
cellular level
these chemicals speed up the breakdown
of muscle and fat which causes the fish
to lose its inherent rich flavor and
adopt a bitter mushy taste they make
fish rot quickly and develop at
unpleasant fishy smell since most fish
are killed this way it's probably all
you've ever tasted
but there's a better way
EKGs May is a traditional Japanese
method for killing fish it's a four-step
process and according to Andrew it
basically translates to brain spike
he'll show you why with this live
Maryland striped bass from the
Chesapeake Bay so the first step is to
actually make sure that this fish
doesn't experience any stress we're
gonna kill this fish by placing a spike
into its brain you know that you've
actually hit its brain when that fish
ceases like this its dorsal and the rest
of its fins flare and its mouth will
flip once it spikes the fish is brain
dead
meaning it can't experience any more
stress but its heart is still beating
from cellular energy reserves because
its heart is still bleeding we're gonna
use the residual blood pressure to hump
out and bleed the fish this is also
known as exsanguination so the process
of exsanguination of fish is three cuts
the first cut is at the gill arches
on both sides and then the third cut is
at the artery and the tail removing the
blood means the fish rots slower at this
point even though the fish is brain dead
the nervous system can still cause
involuntary muscle movement which adds
to that unsavory lactic acid buildup
this next step shuts that down one of
the more gruesome parts of EKGs may is
the spinal cord destruction and the
necessity of it sort of varies by
species but essentially what the
objective is is to cease any further
signaling between the central nervous
system and the muscle tissue and that
takes place in the spinal cord one of
the ways that that is achievable is by
sending a metal pith through the spinal
cord of the fish last but not least the
fish goes into a bath of ice water we
use a 1 to 1 ice to water ratio to
create a slurry and then submerge the
fish fully in the slurry in there the
mussels cool down completely and the
fish finishes bleeding out
when you take a look inside a fish you
can really see the difference that Iike
GMA makes both of these fish were caught
earlier this day one was killed using
the standard method suffocation and the
other was killed using the EKG method
when Andrew opened them up they looked
relatively the same but you can see that
the suffocated one is filled with a lot
of blood the stuff that causes quick
decomposition we did a taste test and
the honestly taste is pretty similar it
stays fresh there's not like an
overwhelming flavor to it it's a few
days later when things really start to
change FDA guidelines recommend cooking
refrigerated fish within two days
but since EKGs may slows rotting
immensely the fish is good for much
longer which means it's able to develop
more complex flavors similar to the way
red meat tastes better when it's aged
this fish was purchased whole from the
grocery store killed using the standard
suffocation method it's a couple of days
old and this one was killed using the
EKG main method it's been sitting in the
fridge at 33 degrees for two whole weeks
when we open both of them up the
suffocated one had a distinct fishy
aroma its insides had blood running
through them and we're starting to break
apart providing more space for bacteria
to grow the aged EKG may fish on the
other hand had barely any scent they
tasted different - it's not great I'll
be honest with you it's a little sour
okay so this is supposed to be the Primo
fish the one that was has been aging for
two weeks after being killed with the
EKG method
you can tell underneath it there's just
like this hint of complexity and once we
added a bit of salt to bring that flavor
out I don't even know what it tastes
like but it's delicious so it tastes
much better and lasts much longer why
aren't more fish killed using the EKG
main method then the answer is simple
cost it's almost impossible to scale EKG
may on commercial ship decks and fish
farms where it's just cheaper and easier
to default the suffocation for now there
is one particular market for fish killed
using the EKG main method high-end
restaurants especially one serving sushi
like La Marina in France or Providence
in LA these restaurants pay a lot of
money for EKG a fish from Japan its
primary exporter but elsewhere in the
world fishers are sitting on an untapped
market if they use the EKG main method
they could sell their fish for a lot
more money anyone if given the
opportunity to look at two filets side
by side or two fish side by side will
immediately notice these distinctions
it's just that that opportunity doesn't
really come around very often I like to
think that EKGs Mei is actually about
intellectual integrity the integrity to
fish the integrity of sort of what we're
really doing here which is ultimately
creating something to eat
making a smarter choice in the food
system can help us feel good about our
decisions and making the smarter choice
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