salinity of its home waters, the food it eats,
and the way it is harvested and handled.
Fish Taste In general, seafood is more full-
tasting than meats or freshwater fish, because
ocean creatures accumulate amino acids to
counterbalance the salinity of seawater (p.
188). The flesh of ocean fish generally
contains about the same amount of salty
sodium as beef or trout, but three to ten times
more free amino acids, notably sweet glycine
and savory glutamate. Shellfish, sharks and
rays, and members of the herring and
mackerel family are especially rich in these
amino acids. Because the salt content of
seawater varies substantially — it’s high in
the open ocean, lower near river mouths —
the amino-acid content and therefore taste
intensity of fish varies according to the waters
they’re caught in.
An additional element of fish taste is
contributed indirectly by the energy-carrying