Tuna in the Maldives (forget the parts.... out the window!)

Maldivian Tuna is the second or third biggest producer of tuna in the world and one of the biggest economically significant industries for the islands and importantly they banned long line fishing a while back so it’s pretty much only pole fishing which is ‘sort of’ sustainable! A lot of your tinned tuna comes from here or Sri Lanka.

We came across an interesting find during our walk all around this amazing island. On this island the main catch of Skipjack tuna are gutted and the head removed.
Then boiled really, really hard for 30 minutes
Then dried and smoked and sold mostly to Sri Lanka (the biggest producer of tuna...?)

But what we found really significant and interesting here was the byproduct they made from boiling the heads and waste down to a really thick consistency of fish stock...
This guy showed us the finished product in a barrel and we all practically wretched but I thought “f**k it, I need to know what this is about” and asked if I could try it, so I stuck my finger in that barrel and made a serious personal discovery, the most delicious fish, sort of stock, made from a byproduct or waste product of a sustainable fishery...! Basically it’s like marmite, Vegemite, Bovril, but hugely more delicious (in my opinion) and ‘sustainable’ and clearly full of all the omegas that everyone thinks they love! It’s not cheap and it normally gets flown from Male to Thailand then fermented into nam pla which (in my opinion) is a massive waste of this amazing product. Obviously I bought as much as I could afford (about $3 at the time) Another business plan brewing... the closest taste I can put it to is botarga, which is the dried mullet roe from Italy and costs £100’s+ a kilo, super expensive but super delicious, not as delicious as 'Jesse’s Fishemite’ soon at a Whole Foods near you 🤗😂🤑
What we really need to do is encourage the big 6 fish catching nations to do the same, it has so much potential for everything from gourmet eating to farmed fish feed and fertiliser, rather than throwing all the waste and any other fish they don't have a quota for back in the sea either destroyed or dead...