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SALT LAKE CITY — It's a night out at a seafood restaurant with the significant other. She orders the red snapper for $23. He orders the tuna steak for $18. Neither of them know what they're actually getting are tilefish and escolar, both of which pose health risks.

According to a nationwide survey from Oceana, fish fraud is rampant in the United States, with all but the most easily identifiable fish mislabeled and sold as something that it's not. Of the more than 1,200 samples collected from the nation's major metropolitan areas, one third were mislabeled.

Especially egregious are the cases of red snapper and tuna, which were mislabeled 87 percent and 59 percent of the time, respectively. Tilefish were sometimes sold as red snapper, though tilefish has especially high levels of mercury and is not recommended for sensitive eaters. As for tuna, it frequently turned out to be escolar, a snake mackerel, which can cause sever gastrointestinal distress even after eating only a few ounces.

"As our results demonstrate, a high level of mislabeling nationwide indicates that seafood fraud harms not only the consumer's pocket book, but also every honest vendor or fisherman along the supply chain," the study says. "These fraudulent practices also carry potentially serious concerns for the health of consumers, and for the health of our oceans and vulnerable fish populations."

How to avoid fish fraud Buy whole fish from grocery stores or reputable seafood dealers: Fraud was much less rampant at grocery stores. Whole fish are also easier to identify than fillets.

Buy well-known, easily identifiable fish: Salmon is much harder to fake than say, sole or grouper.

Expect mislabeling at sushi joints: Though no sushi restaurants were sampled in Salt Lake, 95 percent in the nationwide survey mislabeled to some degree, especially yellowtail and tuna.

Avoid red snapper and tuna at restaurants: These two fish are the most frequently fraudulent, and are difficult to correctly identify without seeing the whole fish.

Tell the seller you are upset when you don't get what you expect: The more people demand safe, truthful fish, the more likely sellers with stop mislabeling.



Especially problematic were fish found at sushi restaurants, where consumers were much more likely to get mislabeled fish than the real thing. 95 percent of sushi restaurants sampled had fraudulent fish. Moreover, not a single sample of what was labeled as yellowtail, or hamachi, was actually yellowtail.

Grocery stores were much more likely to correctly label fish, and most samples were what they claimed. Only 27 percent of grocery stores committed fish fraud. Restaurants were somewhere in between, though at both, snapper was by far the most frequently mislabeled.

All this creates a problem for the consumer, because correctly identifying fish is often difficult for anyone who is not an expert.

"Even a relatively educated consumer couldn't look at a whole fish and say, ‘I'm sure that's a red snapper and not lane snapper,' " said the study's chief author Kimberly Warner.

Consumers can protect themselves by asking questions, according to the study. Talk to the person you are buying your fish from. Do they know what they are talking about? Do they readily tell you what kind of fish it is, where it was caught, and whether it was wild or farmed?

Also look at the price — if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't what you think it is. Purchasing the whole fish at a grocery store is the easiest way to get what you plan on getting, as well as finding a reputable dealer with a busy business.

Above all, consumers should report fraudulent activity. If there's something fishy going on, contact the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and let them know you suspect mislabeling by emailing safe.seafood@noaa.gove or calling 1-800-853-1964.

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