What Was Eulachon Fish Oil Used For in the USA
Eulachon oil (also known as “grease”) was the most important product traded into the interior; as a result, the trails over which the trade was conducted came to be known as grease trails. Other uses of eulachon by non-Natives include bait for sportfishing and food for cats and dogs.
What was Oolichan grease used for?
Rendered oolichan grease became a key item for trade with people who had no access to spawning rivers. It had outstanding keeping qualities, was an excellent source of food energy and also had a reputation as a healing aid.
What is eulachon grease and how is it important to the Haisla?
Eulachon meat and grease is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which help protect against diabetes and strokes. Herring and herring roe have always been an important part of the Coastal Fishery. On the coast, herring are harvested from late winter into spring.
How do BC aboriginal peoples process eulachon oil from the small fish?
Eulachon grease is made by putting the fish in what’s called a stink box, where the blood drains into cedar boughs laid on the bottom. The eulachon ferment for several days until their eyes turn red before they’re moved to another box for cooking at a precise temperature that releases the grease.
Why is the eulachon fish disappearing?
Theories to explain the decline ranged from overfishing to climate change to the industrialization of river corridors. Since eulachon had never been an important species to commercial fisheries, little research was done to determine the cause. Now, more than two decades later, many eulachon runs live on only in memory.
What is Oolichan grease?
Oolichan grease, a dietary fat prepared from smelt-like fish, is highly prized by north Pacific coast aboriginal cultures. Only the fresh fish PL fraction contained appreciable DHA. The bulk of the grease consisted of saturated fatty acids (30.3 wt%) and mono-unsaturates (55.0 wt%), explaining its high melting point.
Does Ooligan grease go bad?
Everyone maintains that grease which is properly cooked and bottled will keep for several years at room temperature. Those who store it frozen say they do so to keep the flavor from getting “strong.”Dec 3, 1982.
What is the meaning of eulachon?
eulachon in American English (ˈjuːləˌkɑn) noun. a small, edible, smeltlike fish, Thaleichthys pacificus, of northwestern coastal waters of North America, being so oily that when dried it can be used as a candle; candlefish.
Are Candlefish extinct?
Least Concern.
Who traditionally harvested Eulachon?
The Kitimat Haisla camped in a fishing village located near the Kitimat River mouth in March and April to catch eulachon [63]. The British Columbia Indigenous Peoples caught them at the Nass, the Skeena, the Kitimat, the Bella Coola, the Kingcome, the Fraser and the Stikine Rivers.
How do you catch hooligans?
Hooligan are typically caught by dipnet, a long-handled net with a bag that has fine mesh in it. The fish school up in deeper pockets, and in these places hundreds of hooligan can be caught. At this writing, a dipnetting permit is not required, and anyone with a valid sport fishing license can catch hooligan.
How long is the grease trail?
From time immemorial, this 279-mile trail – which starts at a glacier-fed fjord near Bella Coola in the Great Bear Rainforest, climbs east over mountain ranges and then fans out across what’s now known as British Columbia – has been an overland trade route.
Can you eat Candlefish?
The bones of cooked or smoked smelt are soft, and many people (including us) eat them whole from head to tail.
What do you do with a hooligan?
My favorite way to eat hooligan is to pan fry them after dipping them in cornmeal with salt and pepper. Frying tightens up the meat, after which you can pull the bones right out of the fish (or eat them–they are small and soft after cooking).
What is hooligan grease?
Ooligan grease consists of about 30% saturated fats and 55% mono-unsaturated fats making it more like olive oil than a typical fish oil. It is low in polyunsaturated fats which makes it more resistant to oxidation and spoilage making it easy to store which accounts in part for its desirability for trade.
What do anadromous fish do?
What is an Anadromous Fish? Anadromous fish migrate from freshwater where they hatch to the ocean where they spend most of their lives and grow large before returning to freshwater to spawn. Common anadromous fish include salmon, smelt, sturgeon, and lamprey.
Are Eulachon endangered?
Least Concern.
Are Eulachons anadromous?
About the Species Eulachon are an anadromous (moving between freshwater and saltwater) smelt in the family Osmeridae.
Which indigenous nations used grease trails to trade?
The trail follows an overland trade route between the Fraser River near Quesnel and the coastal community of Bella Coola, which was used primarily by various First Nations people including the Nuxalk (Bella Coola), the Tsilhqot’in (Chilcotin) and the Dakelh (Carrier).
What kind of fish is hooligan?
The eulachon (/ˈjuːləkɒn/; Thaleichthys pacificus; also spelled oolichan /ˈuːlɪkɑːn/, ooligan /ˈuːlɪɡən/, hooligan /ˈhuːlɪɡən/), also called the candlefish, is a small anadromous species of smelt that spawns in some of the major river systems along the Pacific coast of North America from northern California to Alaska.
What is the difference between smelt and hooligan?
The real name for these little critters is eulachon. They have lots of other common names in in the Northwest – in our part of Alaska we call them hooligan, or even ‘hoolies’. They’re a type of smelt, and their numbers vary quite a bit from year to year.
When should I go hooligan fishing?
The best time to fish is on an incoming tide. “They’re weak swimmers, so they use that tide to move up that river,” said Shane Hertzog of Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “A flood tide really slows down (the fishing) because they can spread out.”May 22, 2018.
How long is the Sunshine Coast Trail?
We did about 100k in 6 days, from Sarah Point to Lewis lake. Some challenging 20k+ 1000m+ elevation days! Gorgeous lakes, huts were great, Tinhat was legendary. Great trail but some of the markers for distances felt a bit off.