Catch of the day
Anthony Huckstep visits the Aussie legend and discvovers, whether wild-caught or farmed, the great barra is quality eating.
Revealed: why Aussie barramundi is better than ever.
THE WILD BARRAMUNDI
fishermen of Australia’s Top End are as fabled as the hero Australian fish itself. The threat from freshwater and saltwater crocodiles is second only to that posed by paralysis- or death-inducing creeping, crawling and flying fauna. The fishermens’ toughness is part of the legend of the great Aussie barramundi.
“It’s a member of the catadromous family, meaning it’s equally at home in salt, fresh or brackish water,” says John Susman of seafood consultancy Fishtales. “In Australia they’re found across the Top End from the Noosa River to Shark Bay in WA.”
Wild barra has umami characteristics, Susman adds, with mild mushroom notes and a broad scalloping yet meaty flesh that’s “absolutely extraordinary”. He foresees a renaissance of appreciation for the wild fish. However, he also reveals that an improvement in the quality of farmed barramundi has produced a fish that has greater consistency and continuity, too.
Barra is now farmed across northern Australia, from the ocean farm at Cone Bay in the Buccaneer Archipelago (WA) to the Humpty Doo farm on the Adelaide River (NT), as well as a dozen sites extending down the Queensland east coast. “The farms all produce fish that have unique regional characteristics, from rich and meaty to lightly vegetal in flavour, with fatty to lean textures,” says Susman.
Humpty Doo, in particular, is adding to the legend of our most famous fish through its recently developed (and world-first) sashimi-grade barramundi, created using a combination of feed, husbandry and the Japanese ike jime harvesting technique. “The Humpty Doo sashimi-grade fish is a genuinely superb eating fish, with both firm flesh and a sweet, mild flavour with notes of asparagus and melon,” says Susman.
Although their barra is now mostly farmed, the Humpty Doo crew face the same threats as wild-catch fishermen. So much so, they’ve hired a ‘croc catcher’ to manage their unique occupational health and safety needs. “We don’t mind [the crocodiles] eating the fish, as long as they don’t eat the staff,” says the company’s owner, Dan Richards. Indeed.