Yellowtail Jack

Season: Summer/Fall

Seriola ialandi

The Meat

This meat is extremely close in flavor and texture to the famous hamachi, served in sushi restaurants and is best eaten as sashimi or pan seared or grilled.  Hamachi comes from the very closely related (and often farmed) Japanese amberjack (Seriola quinqueradiata).

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Prep

Your yellowtail will come filleted with skin on. Trim the dark red portions off the fillet before cooking or eating raw.  

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Gear and fishery info

Any yellowtail that come our way are caught in southern California by troll boats. Purse seining for yellowtail has been illegal in California waters since 1941.

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#KnowYourFisherman

Our Yellowtail Jack are caught by F/V Ultra Pacific caught off of the Channel Islands, CA

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Fish Nerdism 101

Yellowtail were canned in the early 20th century but the product never caught on.  They live to at least 12 years and have been observed rubbing themselves against sharks (in order to remove parasites). 

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Health concerns

Yellowtail are big, predatory fish that subsist on a diet composed mostly of other fishes. So you don’t want to eat them every week. But that’s not a problem because we don’t get very many yellowtail.  Various websites recommend not eating more than one 6 oz serving three times per month. But again… this isn’t going to happen at Sea Forager because I just don’t have frequent access to California caught yellowtail. And even so, “three 6 oz servings per month” is not the type of recommendation that screams “problematic fish” at me. 

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Parting Shots

Yellowtail are one of the great game fish of the West Coast. A fish Ernest Hemmingway would’ve been proud to catch. The hook and line record for California yellowtail stands at a jaw-dropping 91.6 pounds.

Recipes

Facts

• Scientific Name:             Seriola ialandi

• Habitat:  Offshore, Southern California 

• Diet: Mostly small schooling fishes and squid 

• Size:  Commonly between 12 and 50 pounds

• Range: British Columbia to Chile