Anna Bozzano: "We eat salmon thinking it has omega-3, but farmed salmon doesn't have as much, and it does have a lot of fat"

BarcelonaI interview the scientist Anna Bozzano (Genoa, 1966) on a summer morning in the middle of a heatwave. We talk about the sea temperature, which is high and causes changes in the fish she studies. Bozzano arrived in Barcelona in 1992 as a final-year undergraduate student to work at the Institute of Fisheries Research. She was 26 years old, and she has never returned to Italy since. In Catalonia, she started a family, has had two daughters, and works as a promoter of fish knowledge with the project El Peix al Plat (Fish on the Plate). She has been living in Barcelona for thirty-four years, where she has lived in different neighborhoods, and now she is in Barceloneta.

What did you like about Barcelona to the point that you decided to stay?

— People, the open-mindedness they have, you can do whatever you want without being judged. Also the opportunities there are and the cultural life.

Did you speak Catalan when you arrived in Barcelona?

— Not at all. I didn't even know it existed! I arrived for the Olympic Games, and I thought that when they finished I would go back. That same summer my boss gave me a booklet called The History of Catalonia, written in Catalan, and I told him that I wouldn't take it because I didn't understand Catalan or Spanish.

What happened then?

— I learned Spanish, but I realized that my friends spoke Catalan among themselves and switched languages to speak with me. I didn't like it. I wanted to speak like them, so I signed up for Catalan courses and asked them to speak to me in Catalan. The language volunteering, meeting with someone to talk, worked very well for me. By the way, it's a myth that with a basic Italian you learn Catalan quickly, because no, it's not like that.

What had you studied in Italy?

— Natural Sciences. When I arrived in Barcelona, they didn't recognize my degree because the major didn't exist. I had to enroll in subjects from another major for them to recognize it. And immediately after, I started a doctorate in marine sciences. I've been living in Barcelona for thirty-four years and have lived in many neighborhoods; the last one, Barceloneta, where I've been for five years.

Do they eat a lot of fish in Barceloneta?

— I don't eat at restaurants in Barceloneta, and even less in the summer. It's crazy. I do go to the market, which has good fish shops, with local produce, from the fish market.

Do they work?

— I don't know, but I never see many people there. Fortunately, the lifelong women go there. It's a market that needs a boost. I once proposed to the Municipal Institute of Markets to use two stalls from two fishmongers that have been closed for a long time to carry out fish dissemination activities. I told them to let me have the stalls, to let me try to do the dissemination activities of the fish they can buy at the market. The stalls where I wanted to do it are closed and located at the entrance of the market, it makes a bad impression to see them closed. I told them to do a trial run to see if it worked, and that afterwards we would talk about economic agreements. Well, they told me no, that they weren't interested, that they preferred to keep them closed.

What would you have done, specifically?

— Tastings, talks, family activities on Saturdays, for children during autumn, winter and spring afternoons... In summer, another story. La Barceloneta has two sides, in my opinion. One is the tourist side, the side of the Joan de Borbó promenade, the beach. And the other is the interior side, the side of the streets, the market, where you find the people from all your life. These people indeed find it harder every day, because local commerce is disappearing and what remains are shops for tourists. Despite this, we have two bakeries that are benchmarks, Baluard and Balboa, and greengrocers from all your life. We no longer have a bookstore, because it closed last year; it was a shame. In its place, they have put a shop selling vaporizers.

In Barceloneta there are also good traditional restaurants.

— You're right. Like Cova Fumada, Can Ramonet... There are four or five that are good, that are traditional. In Barceloneta, it's very pleasant in winter, especially in January and February, when everything is very quiet.

In Catalonia, in general, is a lot of fish eaten?

— Less and less. If we base ourselves on statistics, salmon is the best-selling fish in Catalonia; in Spain, too. And I wonder if people know that it is a fish that is not local, that it comes from far away.

Why do you think it is like this?

— Because it is easy to eat and has no bones, because it is sold filleted and because it is red, which is a color that we love.

Do we like the color red?

— Yes, that's why red apples sell more than any other.

The salmon sold in Catalonia is more orange.

— Yes; the red one is the wild, which is scarce and expensive, and it is good from a nutritional point of view.

Is farmed salmon, the orange-colored one, the one sold in bulk, different?

— Yes, because it has been fed on feed, made with soy flour and fish. So it doesn't have as much omega-3 as a wild salmon, which has eaten fish, which, in turn, have fed on plankton. We eat salmon thinking it has omega-3, and it's not true; farmed salmon doesn't have as much, and it does have a lot of fat.

Why does it have more fat?

— Because it fattens very quickly. And on top of that, we have gotten used to it. When we see the fatty streak of salmon, it no longer surprises us, we think it is natural to salmon, that we have to eat it like this. That is why much education about fish is needed, and from when children are small.

The issue is that the bones put many people off.

— It's true. It's the big brake for eating different fish, but we don't have the habit of removing them. There's no problem if a fish has bones, we can remove them with a fork and knife. We have to learn, that's why we need to do a lot of teaching.

Fishmongers also do a lot of work.

— Too much, because then people don't know how to clean fish at home. They give it to us all done, and we'll end up thinking that fish are fillets, which is what many supermarkets are doing.

Supermarkets sell fish.

— More and more. They put filleted fish in polystyrene trays and wrap it in plastic with a modified atmosphere. This way it keeps longer. It's the same as with supermarket vegetables: the bags of lettuce have a modified atmosphere, and that's why when we open them they smell strange; then it disappears. All this is a trend. If it's done with fish and people buy it, we will lose the ability to recognize them, to know which ones they are.

Are local fish more economical?

— If we choose the lesser-known species, yes. A local shrimp is expensive. A foot-long conger eel, intended for soup fish, is not.

What is the tastiest fish, in your opinion?

— The glow-worm, the big glow-worm, is one of the best fish in the sea. We have to place the fork and knife in the center and then remove the central bone, separate it to the sides, and then we can eat it. In fact, all triangular fish can be deboned this way.

Do we know how to cook fish?

— No. Each group of fish has its own different cooking method. Oily fish should not be cooked for too long, because then the fats oxidize. If we want to eat raw tuna, it must be frozen beforehand to ensure there is no anisakis. In general, if we want to eat raw fish, we must freeze it. Vinegar does not kill anisakis, so if we make anchovies in vinegar, they must be frozen beforehand. On the other hand, when the cooking temperature exceeds 60 degrees, whether baked, grilled, breaded, or boiled, prior freezing is no longer necessary. Despite this, I do not recommend freezing fish, because some nutrients are always lost. We should have high-speed freezers so that freezing does not affect the nutrients, but with home freezers, liquid is always lost, and that is where some vitamins are.

And what happened to the sonso? Why is it so valued now?

— It has become an iconic fish, and it is suffering. Its success began ten years ago, and nothing is known about its nutritional profile. I have started a project to determine the nutritional profiles of lesser-known fish. I think that perhaps this way doctors, pediatricians, and nutritionists would have the information to not have to recommend salmon, but rather bròtola.

But why has the sonso become so well-known?

— Thirteen years ago, its population declined due to the way it was fished, which is by trawling. Then the fishermen spoke with the Institute of Marine Sciences and created a co-management table that served to study its biology and make a recommendation to the fishermen. As a result, the fishing fleets have divided the boats that fish for it: one week, some; the other part of the week, others. Half the quantity that used to arrive at the market now arrives, but at a higher price, because there is less fish at the source and, therefore, it is more expensive. Before, a large quantity arrived at the market, and the price was low. In this way, the population of sonsos has been maintained. This ecogestion table has won many awards internationally, and from here others have been created in Catalonia, because it is a pioneer in sustainable fishing management. In Catalonia we think we are bad, but no, the fishing sector works hard to do things very well. The economy, when linked with science, yields very good results.

What are you currently working on?

— I have started a project to determine the nutritional profiles of lesser-known fish, thanks to funding from the Ona Futura Foundation and the collaboration of the University of Barcelona.

To finish, if I buy a firefly, your favorite fish, how do I cook it?

— To start, you'll likely notice a shrimp aftertaste; this is because the anglerfish eats them. It's a very tasty fish, easily cooked with a little salt, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and parsley. Add a little broth, cover the pot for twenty minutes, and you'll have a simple and delicious stew.