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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Could you taste the difference between cod and other whitefish, such as haddock or hake, if you didn't know what you were eating? The answer may have implications for supporting local fisheries and food sustainability in New England, says UMass Amherst environmental conservation graduate student Amanda Davis.

A research fellow at the UMass Amherst-based Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, Davis is exploring the reactions of UMass Amherst students and staff, born between 1980 and 2000, in a scientific sensory evaluation of five different whitefish sourced straight from the Boston Fish Pier: cod, dogfish, haddock, hake and pollock.

The study, funded by a seed grant from the UMass Amherst Institute for Social Science Research, is designed to explore "name bias" in seafood choices. Davis will present results in January at the winter science meeting of the American Fisheries Society's Southern New England Chapter in Cambridge.

The whitefish study grew out of Davis's interest in promoting local, sustainable seafood in New England. She is director of Our Wicked Fish, a newly founded, Deerfield-based nonprofit that strives to revitalize New England's fishing industry by educating consumers and connecting them with local seafood options.

It might come as a surprise, Davis notes, that despite the storied tradition of New England's fisheries—Cape Cod was named after the once-abundant fish, after all—most seafood offered in the Northeast U.S. today is imported. "We want to change that," Davis says. "How can we get consumers interested in eating whitefish other than cod? Hake, pollock and haddock taste as good and are not as expensive."

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