I know some fishing vessels have onboard freezers to keep fish fresh. These things must be big and eat a lot of energy. Plus, fish is then frozen, not fresh. No sushi potential.
I propose that vessels instead of onboard irradiators. All fish would be cleaned, radiated then wrapped. Radiation would allow sushi grade and other fresh fish to stay fresh. It would also kill any parasites, so all grades of fish could be eaten raw without fear of sickness.-- bungston, Jul 08 2010 [+], but: _Would_ it kill the parasites? Cells are vulnerable to radiation in proportion to how rapidly they divide. That should make bacteria vulnerable, but parasites might be at a stage of their life cycle (egg e.g.) where they weren't mitosing very much.-- mouseposture, Jul 08 2010 Basically [+].
Possible problems: irradiation equipment tends to be big and heavy (ie, lots of lead shielding), and most people probably don't want to risk a powerful radiation source winding up on the seabed. Also, you'd want to irradiate *after* wrapping (sealing) - irradiation won't stop new bacteria getting in and proliferating.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 08 2010 Wouldn't it kill the fish? No self-respecting sushi chef is going to work with fish that aren't still moving before he starts his work...-- vincevincevince, Jul 09 2010 I very much like the electrification addon. Radiated fish would be for sushi cheves without self-respect, and ordinary citizens who would eat fish but are too lazy to cook and too fearful of cooties.-- bungston, Jul 09 2010 [+]-- 8th of 7, Jul 09 2010 [bigsleep]//dancing sushi karaoke bar// Oh you *must* post that.-- mouseposture, Jul 09 2010 Old stuff.-- ldischler, Jul 09 2010 I'm very happy to see not one post of somebody complaining about the possibility of "radioactive fish".
Smart crowd.
People are dying because of the ignorance bordering on superstition regarding food irradiation. Maybe it needs a good public image overhaul, like when they changed the name of death insurance to "life insurance".
Maybe just call it "electromagnetic food cleaning" or something. [+]-- doctorremulac3, Jul 11 2010 //Maybe just call it "electromagnetic food cleaning" //"This food has been picowaved"-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jul 11 2010 OOOOOHHH theres a plan, lets outfit every crappy fishing boat in the fleet with a radiactive source that way when they sink to the bottom of the ocean we can irradiate the fish before we catch them....-- jhomrighaus, Jul 11 2010 //sink to the bottom of the ocean// <Grytpype-Thynne> Best place for it, what? </HG-T> That would be bad, I suppose, unless it happened to be a subduction zone - - but I'd worry more about theft.-- mouseposture, Jul 11 2010 random, halfbakery