Why doesn’t the OU publish a kosher fish list?
At this time, there is no reliable consumer fish list, and it would be very difficult to create one. The reason is that “common names” are a highly inaccurate way of describing a fish. For example, there are several fish known as “red snapper”. Who can say for certain that every fish called “red snapper” is in fact kosher, when “red snapper” could be referring to so many different fish? Another instance that we have found common names to be misleading is in the case of “escolar”. Escolar could refer to Ruvettus pretiosus (kosher) or Gempylus serpens (non-kosher). Yet another is “Ling” which could refer to 6 different species of fish (See www.fishbase.org) most of which are in fact kosher. However, when the OU examined a sample of one of these “Ling” fish whose Latin name is Lota Lota (also called Burbot, Freshwater Cod, Eelpout, Lawyer and other names) we found it to be not kosher. Latin names are more accurate. The OU could theoretically create a list of kosher fish by Latin name. The
