Whether it’s a delicious plate of pasta with shrimp, a steaming lobster, or a salmon fillet cooked to flaky perfection, seafood is incredibly popular around the world. In some countries, seafood isn’t just the main meat that most people get to eat but one of the main food staples in general. Some parts of the world aren’t great for agriculture, and thus seafood is essential to the survival of millions of people. But despite its popularity, there are still many misconceptions about seafood.

10Lobsters And Crabs Do Feel Pain

For a long time, pro-animal activists have decried the practice of boiling lobsters alive when cooking them. They attest that this is an inhumane practice akin to torture. Those who enjoy lobster have always explained away the practice of live boiling by claiming lobsters—and other similar crustaceans—cannot actually feel pain.

According to recent research though, it looks like the animal rights activists might have had a point after all. Crustaceans may indeed feel pain. The common belief has been that since crustaceans have nociceptors (receptors that alert you to harmful stimuli but do not cause pain), they do not actually feel anything.

Robert Elwood and a group of researchers at Queens University Belfast spent some time testing this theory out. They did so by inflicting horrible punishment like dabbing acetic acid on prawns and shocking crabs. Each time, they observed the animals paying close attention to the affected area. They even responded positively to anesthetics. This marks a complicated pain response that might give one hesitation about dropping a living thing in boiling water ever again.

9Parasitic Nematodes

If you buy a nice thick fillet at the grocery store, there’s always the chance you will find a rather nasty surprise. Popular fish—like trout and salmon—are common targets for parasitic roundworms like Anisakis simplex. These cuddly little darlings curl up into a nasty little circle and nest themselves firmly in the flesh of your future meal. These parasites are common enough that many major fisheries will check carefully with lights and candles for parasites, though they still get through occasionally.

Aside from the nasty shock of biting into a worm carcass, you shouldn’t have any serious issues if your fish is properly cooked. However, if the fish is raw or undercooked, then this parasite could ruin your whole day or worse. If a live one ends up in your gullet and decides to make friends with your stomach, you could end up with anisakiasis. Symptoms of this lovely disease include vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps.

8The Great Shrimp Vein Debate

Shrimp is one of the most popular seafood dishes in the world. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of confusion about whether or not a shrimp should be deveined before cooking it. The “vein” is actually the shrimp’s intestine, so there’s a decent chance that when you caught the shrimp he still had the remains of his last meal. Shrimp are bottom feeders, and remains in the intestines are said to make the shrimp taste gritty.

However, this usually only applies to larger shrimp—with small shrimp, the vein will likely not even be noticeable. However, some people claim that there is a taste difference even with smaller shrimp. Some like it better with, some like it better without. There are also those who prefer their shrimp served alive or freshly killed. In short, you aren’t really risking your health with shrimp that hasn’t been deveined. It’s a matter of personal preference.

7The Salmon Of Knowledge

Irish legend tells of a salmon that possessed great wisdom and ability. The one whom the Salmon chose to eat it would receive divinatory powers. A druid named Finneigas was waiting patiently for the fish to swim by so he could catch it and eat it until he was all-powerful.

After a very long wait, he finally caught sight of the elusive salmon and snatched him out of the water. Since he wasn’t going to just eat it raw, Finneigas ordered a young lad named Demne to cook the magical fish. He then waited patiently to finally reach his ultimate triumph.

Unfortunately for poor Finneigas, Demne accidentally burned himself while touching the still-cooking fish. Without even thinking about it, the young man put his thumb in his mouth to wet and cool the sizzling digit. The next thing he knew, the powers of the salmon were his.

Finneigas was, as you might expect, greatly disappointed. There was nothing he could do though—clearly, the Salmon of Knowledge had not chosen him. Demne was henceforth known as Fionn and, blessed with the powers of the salmon, he went on to become a great Irish chieftain.

6Shark Finning

While sharks may not be everyone’s favorite ocean creature, most people would probably still find the practice of shark finning more than a little absurd. In order to complete an expensive delicacy called shark fin soup, shark finners capture sharks, cut off their fin, and toss the shark back into the ocean to die. Like we said: absurd.

Recently, the United Arab Emirates and many other authorities have banned the practice. Their new rules state that if someone fishes a shark, they have to bring the entire body back to the port. See, apart from slow murder by painful mutilation, finning is also an incredibly wasteful practice with tons of live sharks being tossed back into the ocean as the swimming dead.

In China, shark fin soup is an expensive delicacy that can run as much as US$100 a bowl. It was once a food only royalty could obtain and was thus a mark of high status. In modern times, it has become more of a ritual to mark special occasions or business meetings. Worse yet, the main purpose of the shark fin isn’t even to add taste—it simply gives texture to the soup. That’s all we get out of a practice that kills tens of millions of sharks per year while leaving many other species critically endangered.

5Raw Fish Is Usually Frozen

If you’ve eaten sushi or sashimi in the United States, it was likely frozen long before it ever reached your plate, despite the whole point being to eat it raw. It turns out United States food inspection authorities are pretty concerned about people eating raw food. Any raw fish sold in the United States has to first go through a deep freeze to kill off bacteria before selling the fish to customers.

Tuna is the one exception to the freezing rule, though many of those who sell it freeze it anyway. Many United States sushi bar patrons are deeply concerned with having their fish fresh, but they also want fish that isn’t in season. This means that many sushi bar operators are often freezing tuna—sometimes for up to two years. Interestingly, some connoisseurs will admit that they themselves cannot tell the difference between frozen and fresh tuna.

Of course, you can’t always be certain the raw fish you’re eating was properly frozen, as the FDA can’t inspect every piece of sashimi. There simply aren’t enough health inspectors out there for that. Plus, due to the ambiguous wording of the regulations, freezing can be done either by the restaurant or by whoever sells the fish to them. Sometimes, one side will simply assume that the other side has already started the freezing process, when in fact nobody has and probably never will.

4Mahi Mahi Is Not Dolphin

Many people get very confused about mahi mahi and think that it’s somehow related to the dolphin family. This confusion is understandable—for a long time, mahi mahi was actually known as the dolphinfish.

While it might seem odd that we were calling this fish a dolphin when it looks nothing like one, it turns out there’s a totally reasonable explanation. Mahi mahi have a habit of swimming alongside boats, so people began associating them with dolphins. Unfortunately for commercial fishers, this was about the worst thing that could happen.

Most people don’t want to eat dolphins due to their cuteness, intelligence, and incredibly high levels of mercury. If people confuse some product at the store with dolphin, it’s about the worst bit of PR one can get. In order to deal with this problem, they renamed the dolphinfish to mahi mahi. “Mahi” means “strong” in Hawaiian.

3Scandinavian Fish Spread

For those who live in the United States, peanut butter is one of the most ubiquitous food items around. However, in parts of the world like Scandinavia, peanut butter is viewed as more of a strange curiosity that those crazy Americans slather all over their food for some reason.

Scandinavians do agree that spreads are a great way to eat your favorite foods, but they prefer theirs come from fish. Apart from turning roe or herring into a delicious salty spread, fish are also sold pickled in jars there. Pickled herring is one of the more popular dishes, coming in a wide variety of flavors.

Swedish researchers have begun actively studying fish spreads for any and all health benefits, especially due to the Omega-3 fatty acids present in the fish. If you live in the United States and want to sample this Scandinavian taste sensation for yourself, you can find it at your local Ikea.

2Eating Shellfish Only During ‘R’ Months Isn’t Necessary

You may have heard how you’re only supposed to eat shellfish during months containing the letter “r.” The reasons given for doing so are both numerous and dubious. Some people still follow this advice today while others question whether or not there’s actually any need to do so.

The “r” rule seems to have originated with the Native Americans who passed the advice on to pilgrims and other international settlers. Back then, not eating shellfish during those months made perfect sense. All months without an “r” in their names fall around summertime, when algae can bloom and fill shellfish with nasty toxins that you certainly don’t want coursing throughout your body. Also, shellfish breed a lot during the summer, and some people believe they don’t taste nearly as good while actively fertile.

In the modern world, however, you’re unlikely to deal with any of these problems. The shellfish that you buy at the store are usually cultivated commercially as part of a very streamlined process. In addition, shellfish are usually imported from somewhere else during the hot summer months. So unless you like to hit the beach and catch your own shellfish, you don’t have much to worry about regardless of the month.

1Eels And The Discovery Of Anaphylaxis

As mentioned earlier, we freeze raw sushi and sashimi so they can be safely served. However, there is one tasty delight that needs to be cooked no matter what: eel.

Eating uncooked eel can do more than just ruin your day—even a small amount is likely to kill you. Eel blood is really, really poisonous. While freezing is usually fine for dealing with bacteria or rendering anisakis inert, it does nothing to remove the toxicity of eel blood. The only way to kill the toxic protein is to thoroughly cook the fish.

However, while eel poison is something you certainly don’t want to ingest, their poisonous blood has been used for some important scientific research. In the early 1900s, Dr. Charles Richet found himself intrigued by Louis Pasteur’s experiments in building up tolerance to disease through exposure to weaker versions of it. He wondered if someone could build up resistance to poison in a similar manner.

In order to test his theory, he injected small amounts of eel blood into dogs. Instead of slowly tolerating the poison more and more over time, the dogs actually developed anaphylaxis. This is a severe (and sometimes fatal) allergic reaction that usually develops after multiple exposures to an allergen. Dr. Richet’s discovery, while bad for those poor dogs, opened up new avenues of research. For his efforts, he received a Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Gregory loves seafood.

For as long as humans have been fishing to feed themselves, they have also been fighting over access to the best catch. While we don’t have any records of cavemen bashing each other’s brains in over who gets the biggest trout, there is a long history of bitter conflict in the fishing industry. This list covers some of the times that tension between fishermen erupted into riots, international incidents, and full-blown armed conflict.

10 Oyster Wars (1865-1959)

The Oyster Wars began after the American Civil War with a boom in the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry. Chesapeake oyster towns became a frontier flocked by fortune-seekers. Violence soon erupted between locals and new arrivals, and when the locals ran out of new settlers to shoot at, they turned on each other. Gunfire was exchanged between Maryland and Virginia watermen, and within the states between fishermen from different counties.

It wasn’t long before the government began to intervene in these fishing squabbles, creating the Maryland “Oyster Navy,” a nautical police force that was notoriously ineffective. In 1882, Virginia’s governor William Cameron sent a militia to seize seven boats suspected of illegal oyster dredging in the Rappahannock River. Violent skirmishes over oyster territory continued until 1959, when Maryland patrollers fatally shot a Virginian waterman named Berkeley Muse. To avoid further bloodshed, the two states signed a compact designed to end the century-long conflict.

9 Palingoproer: The Dutch Eel Riot (1886)

One of the favorite pastimes in 19th century Amsterdam was known as eel-pulling (palingtrekken). A rope was stretched across a canal, with a live eel tied in the middle. Men would then cruise beneath the eel-rope in small boats and attempt to pull the slippery fish loose. He who freed the eel received a prize of six guilders, which was decent walking-around money back then. The sport was illegal by the 1880s, but that didn’t halt its popularity.

On July 25, 1886, a lively session of palingtrekken was afoot on the Lindegracht Canal. They had already pulled three times when the police showed up and demanded a stop to the spectacle, entering one of the houses where the ropes were tied to cut the eel loose. The legend says that the falling rope hit a spectator, who started whacking the police with an umbrella. In a matter of hours, a full-blown riot broke out, with spectators throwing bricks at police. Things cooled down overnight, but the next day the army opened fire on rioters storming the police station. Twenty-six civilians were killed and thirty-two were severely injured, making the Palingoproer one of the most severe cases of police brutality in Dutch history.

8 Newlyn Mackerel Riots (1896)

Newlyn is a seaside town in western England with a long history as a fishing port. In the late 19th century, most Newlyn fishermen were strictly religious and refused to work on the Sabbath. However, they had to share their waters with large fishing companies from the east coast of England, who were perfectly fine with fishing on Sundays. This meant the eastern boats could bring their catch to market on Monday, which let them sell at much higher prices. Resentment among observant Newlyn fishermen boiled over in May of 1896, when Tuesday prices dropped as low as 3 shillings for 120 mackerel.

On May 18th, a crowd of fed-up fishermen boarded boats from the east and tossed thousands of mackerels back into the sea. The outrage spread to other Cornish fishing communities, some of whom also attacked eastern boats and erected barriers to prevent access to their harbors. Eventually the local authorities called in the military to quell the rioters, who threw stones at the authorities but eventually settled down, leaving the eastern companies to continue fishing on Sundays.

7 Cod Wars (1415-1976)

Cod is perhaps one of the most economically important fish in history, so it’s no surprise that countries have fought over the right to harvest it. The Cod Wars between the United Kingdom and Iceland are certainly the longest-lasting entry on this list, with historians claiming as many as ten separate episodes spanning several centuries. The first Cod War started in 1415 with English authorities arresting a Danish official in Iceland, which was then the territory of Denmark. This conflict resulted in a treaty agreement that was negotiated and re-negotiated between the two countries for centuries, with each waiting for political instability in the other to regain power over the cod trade.

There were three Cod Wars in the 20th century, mostly involving warning shots, cutting of nets, and ramming of boats. Though the two countries’ ships exchanged minor blows, there were only two casualties recorded in the modern Cod Wars: the accidental deaths of a British fisherman and an Icelandic engineer. It is generally agreed that Iceland was the victor of the Cod Wars, with the resulting treaty agreements effectively ending British long-distance fishing.

6 Lobster War (1961-1964)

Do lobsters crawl or swim? This was the central question in the so-called Lobster War between France and Brazil in the early 1960s. Brazilian authorities insisted that spiny lobsters crawl along the continental shelf of their territory, while French fishermen claimed they swam like fish, making them fair game for any country to harvest. After complaints of French ships catching lobster off the coast of Pernambuco, the Brazilian president gave France 48 hours to withdraw all boats. When they refused, the Brazilian Navy captured a French vessel and shut off access to all French boats off their coast. The next year, Brazil seized three more French vessels. This ignited an international incident that was not resolved until 1964, when the countries to reach an agreement that expanded Brazil’s territorial waters but allowed limited French lobster fishing. No blood was shed, but the country’s respective biologists continued debating whether lobsters crawl or swim for many years after.

5 Galveston Bay Shrimp Conflict (1979-1981)

After the Vietnam war, some refugees fleeing Southeast Asia settled in the Galveston Bay area of Texas and found jobs on shrimp boats. The growth of the refugee shrimper population upset local white shrimpers, who saw them as competition for the limited resources of the bay. The tensions turned to violence in 1979, when a fistfight resulted in the shooting of a white crabber and the burning of several Vietnamese boats. This ongoing ethnic conflict brought the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to Galveston in 1981, where they began terrorizing Vietnamese shrimpers with armed demonstrations on and off the water. Many white supremacists directly threatened violence against the Vietnamese shrimpers, waving pistols and circling their boats in paramilitary gear.

A resulting harassment trial brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center revealed a video of KKK leader Louis Beam encouraging his militia to “utterly destroy everybody.” The lawsuit ended the harassment and disbanded the paramilitary groups, but by then many Vietnamese shrimpers had already moved away or suffered property damage. This incident was the inspiration for the 1985 film Alamo Bay. Beam and his followers went on to perpetrate extremist violence in other parts of the country, laying the groundwork for contemporary white supremacist groups that still threaten violence against minority communities today.

4 Turbot War (1995)

In 1995, the Canadian Coast Guard seized the Spanish trawler Estai, which was fishing in international waters off the coast of Newfoundland. Canadian authorities claimed the Spanish vessel had exceeded its quota of Greenland turbot, a goofy-looking flatfish that goes great with butter and capers. Despite the EU condemning the seizure as an act of “organized piracy,” Canadian vessels cut off the nets of three more Spanish and Portuguese fishing boats in the following weeks. Tensions increased, and Spain even sent a warship to protect its fishing vessels. Eventually, Canada reached an agreement with the EU that ended the conflict by strengthening fishing enforcement and increasing Spain’s turbot quota. No one invited the turbots to the negotiating table. Just the dinner table.

3 Great Scallop War (2012-2020)

In October 2012, a group of about forty French vessels surrounded a few British fishing boats off the coast of France. French fishermen were upset that their country prohibited them from harvesting scallops between May and October, while British fishermen could fish year-round. According to the British fishermen, the French vessels threw stones and nets at the British boats, along with French taunts worthy of any Monty Python sketch. Despite the best efforts of both countries, violence flared between British and French scallop fishermen again in 2018 and 2020. Along with rocks, the French fishermen were accused of throwing frying pans, flares, gasoline bombs, and oil at their British rivals. No love lost between these neighbors!

2 Guang Da Xing No. 28 Incident (2013)

On May 9, 2013, a Filipino Coast Guard patrol boat opened fire on an unarmed Taiwanese boat, the Guang Da Xing No. 28, which was fishing in disputed waters between the two island nations. The coast guard gunfire hit the small vessel at least 45 times, resulting in the death of 65-year-old fisherman Hoh Shi Cheng. This incident was a flashpoint in the conflict between the two countries, whose territorial claims overlap in the waters where the boat was shot. Demonstrations occurred in both countries after the shooting, including a Filipino ex-policeman publicly burning a Taiwanese flag to send the message that “Filipinos are not cowards.” Relations between the two nations have since normalized, and the eight coast guard employees who committed the shooting were convicted in 2019.

1 Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Lobster Dispute (2020)

The most recent entry in this list is the Mi’kmaq Lobster Dispute, which has yet to reach a resolution. According to a 1999 Canadian Supreme Court decision, members of the Mi’kmaq Indigenous tribe have the right to fish on a small scale whenever and wherever they want. In September 2020, the Sipekne’katik First Nation opened a small lobster fishery in Nova Scotia, which was quickly criticized by non-Indigenous fishermen for operating outside of the commercial season. In October, several mobs of non-Indigenous fishermen laid siege to Indigenous-owned lobster facilities in Nova Scotia, throwing rocks, breaking windows, and threatening to set the entire place on fire if the employees inside did not leave. One facility was burned to the ground and the remaining live lobsters poisoned with PVC cement. Canadian officials have called for peace in the wake of the violence in Nova Scotia, but tensions remain high between Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishermen.