10:11 p.m
Sunday, January 22, 2023
Suez – Hossam El Din Ahmed:
The colors and shapes of fish vary within the fish ring in Suez, but what most attracts the attention of those who come to buy fish every weekend are small sharks. They ask about it by its name and how it is eaten, while merchants and the people of the city call it cats or “Al-Khunt” due to the shape of its eye that is similar to a cat, and that it is They give birth and do not lay eggs like other fish.
Sharks sit and catch the eye on the display table. The visitor sees them with understanding and their bright eyes. His mind does not miss their mental image derived from movies and video clips that causes anxiety and fear, but their delicious white meat goes all that, and changes their image to those who eat them.
Muhammad Zaghloul, a fish trader in the circle, says that he knows if the customer is from Suez, or an expatriate from another governorate.
And Muhammad Zaghloul adds that the fish is present throughout the year, but its numbers increase in the summer, and with the end of the winter season, and it falls into the nets of trawlers, or prey to fishing hooks, and in that case it is large in size and the chances of catching it are rare and are not achieved unless the bait is used. big size.
The fish trader pointed out that there are several types of fish, the most famous of which is the hammerhead, which has a large and flattened head, and its eyes are at the two furthest points.
Amr Emara, Sheikh of the fishermen in Suez, says that the Gulf of Suez includes 15 species of sharks, and they come out as incidental catches, and they are not targeted by fishermen, especially the large ones, as they do not fall within the spatial scope of saroh and fishing.
He explained that young sharks spread in the summer, and in the winter days their search for food increases, so they attack small fish in the nets of trawlers, and they mistakenly enter the nets and cannot get out again. Not more than 5% of the catch, and their sizes are small, weighing from 1.25 to 3 kilograms per fish.
He emphasized that fishing boats that work with trawlers or hooks do not catch large sharks, which fishermen know as monsters, especially since the taste of their meat is not the best because it contains a greater amount of ammonia compared to small ones, but they go out with them as occasional catches in a rare way, and their weight exceeds 10 kilos. Therefore, they are called monsters, and they are found in deep waters, and they do not come close to the shore, as they prefer to be found in areas that have a long water column.
7 years ago, the Ministry of the Environment issued a decision banning the hunting of sharks, and this came in the wake of the decisions of international environmental organizations that criminalized hunting them internationally, with the aim of preserving this type of extinction.
Ahmed Eid, a member of the Association of Fishing Boat Owners for the Trawlers and Chincholas, explains that since that decision, the fishermen of the fishing boats stopped hunting sharks, and when they saw and recognized them with the pulling of the fishing line, they freed them and returned them to the water again, and despite the hostility of the fish by its nature, especially in the event that it fell into prey, only It is not exposed to hunters.
He revealed that sharks also appear around the fishing arks that collect the nets of the chanchola boats, and do not miss the opportunity to eat this amount of fish, so they mistakenly enter with the fish trapped in the nets, and are among the incidental catches.
Sharks are sold in the fish circle by the kilo, and the price per kilo ranges from 50 to 70 pounds, depending on the size, and the fresher and smaller the fish, the higher the price.
The methods of preparing the shark differ from other fish, and it is first skinned to reveal pink meat free of thorns, except for several vertebrae and articular cartilages that extend in one line from the head to the tail.
Regarding the method of preparing it, Ahmed Shaara, the owner of a shop for grilling and processing fish, says that the cat fish is skinned because its skin is thick, then it is cut, seasoned well, and fried in oil, after which it is prepared in a casserole.
His poetry adds that the fish only has a vertebrate chain whose meat is soft and rich in protein and minerals, but he warned against eating large sizes that weigh more than 5 kilos because they contain a quantity of mercury.
He revealed that the most expensive thing that comes out of the shark is the fins, which are used to prepare soup in some Asian countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, and there they catch sharks only in order to prepare fin soup, and the price of the dish reaches 100 dollars, while in Suez it was received with the skin and the belly of the fish. Unless the customer who owns the fish is a Chinese working in the projects and factories of the Sokhna region, then they collect it to prepare the fin soup dish and for other uses.
