I went vegetarian-ish earlier this year, and I have eaten a lot of Filet 'O Fish sandwiches since then.  (I call myself "vegetarian-ish" because I do eat seafood.  And as you may have noticed, fish is not a vegetable.)  I have had ample time to study the little cardboard box, with its printed message that "McDonalds Supports Sustainable Fishing."  Conspicuously missing from the box is any information on what kind of fish is in that Fillet!

According to an article that caught my eye in the New York Times, for the last five or ten years, the answer has been hoki.  Hoki are a deep sea fish which hang out in the darkness offshore from New Zealand.  They are about four feet long, with giant pop eyes, and a long tail which the article charitably describes as "whip like."  ("Rat like" is more like it, but hey.)

The hoki is formally known as Macruronus novaezelandiae, and better known as the blue grenadier.  It is a hake, which Wikipedia describes as a "cod-like" fish.  So the Filet 'O Fish isn't cod - it's cod-like.

The New Zealand government famously screwed the pooch on its orange roughy fishery.  In hindsight the orange roughy situation seems so bleeding obvious, but clearly at the time, people lost their heads.  How you could think that a slow breeding fish that lives to be 100 should be opened up to commercial fishing is beyond me.

At any rate, the New Zealand authorities have apparently wised up since then.  Hoki caught people's attention after the orange roughy were all fished out.  Hoki are more prolific breeders, and live "only" about 25 years.  Best news of all, New Zealand decided to start tracking their numbers pretty closely, and adjusting commercial fishing quotas accordingly.  In 2001 the hoki fishery won certification from the Marine Stewardship Council, which is the gold standard of sustainable aquaculture and fishing.

And you think people can't learn from their mistakes!

At any rate, this year they are adjusting the hoki quota down, thanks to what looks like some serious pressure on the hoki fishering.  McDonalds for one is "only" taking 11 million pounds of hoki this year, down from 15 million pounds in an average year.  

Okay well, the first bit of advice I have for any country which is contemplating opening a fishery is: don't let McDonalds in.  How can you think that McDonalds can come fishing in your waters, and they WON'T get completely fished out?  IT'S MCDONALDS.  Look what they did to the rain forest!  

Fortunately the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries seems to have caught the problem in time.  McDonalds even hopefully believes that their hoki quota may be raised next year.  

Is the Filet 'O Fish endangered?  McDonalds spokesmen say that they will make up the difference with other "whitefish."  You hope it's Pollock, but there's no real way to know.  I shudder to think - but that won't stop me from indulging in the occasional Filet 'O Fish when I get caught short while out on an errands run.  No more than once a month, I swear!