Large Yellow Croaker: From Wild Catch to Aquaculture, a Condensed History of Chinese Seafood

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“When yellow croaker graces the table, it’s worth its weight in gold.” In Zhejiang and Shanghai, wild large yellow croaker has long been a traditional banquet centrepiece, chosen as much for its auspicious symbolism as its flavour. Along China’s coastline, perhaps no other fish has experienced a fate so fraught with vicissitudes as this one.

This October, I witnessed a night harvest of large yellow croaker in Ningde, Fujian.

● By day, the large yellow croaker is silvery-white; by night, it turns golden. The photograph shows a semi-farmed yellow croaker, known locally in Ningde as the “half-melon”.

Night harvesting is designed to cater to the market’s preference for uniformly golden fish. The large yellow croaker derives its rich colour from golden pigment cells in its skin, which are highly vulnerable to UV degradation and rapid fading. As a result, harvesting the exact same fish at night rather than during daylight hours commands two entirely different prices.

As dusk falls around seven or eight in the evening, skilled sorters hired by local farmers are already in position. Supervisors from various distribution channels arrive on the boats at the same time to inspect the large yellow croaker at their respective nearshore fish farms.

Fishermen haul the net cages from the water’s surface, revealing the gleaming, uniformly golden fish inside as the water erupts with a cacophony of splashing. Giant ice-water tanks stand ready beside the cages. Once scooped up in mesh nets, the fish must be rapidly transferred into the ice water and immediately covered with light-blocking red cloth.

Within roughly ten minutes, the large yellow croaker retains its golden hue while slipping into a stunned, semi-stuporous state in the freezing water. This marks the transition to sorting and packing, followed by a continuous workflow of weighing, grading, icing, and packaging that runs until midnight. From there, the fish move through various distribution channels, destined to grace the dining tables of major city restaurants within days.

● The sorting staff are predominantly young women, earning approximately 400 yuan per shift for this irregular work.
The large yellow croaker is known for its distinct croaking. Fully farmed croakers are locally dubbed “vegetable melon” in Ningde, trading at around 15 yuan per 500g. Today’s catch, however, brings a new face to the croaker world: the semi-wild large yellow croaker, colloquially known as “half-melon”, which commands roughly three to four times the price of a same-sized “vegetable melon”.

In recent years, wild large yellow croakers have entered public discourse as “sky-price fish”, routinely fetching thousands of yuan per 500g and standing in stark contrast to their “vegetable” and “half-melon” counterparts.

So why does the price of the very same fish vary so drastically? The story goes back more than fifty years.

I.“Extinction-Level Fishing”: From Dirt-Cheap to Sky-High Prices

Along the coasts of Fujian and Zhejiang in the 1970s, wild large yellow croakers were incredibly abundant. Supply was so plentiful that retail prices occasionally dipped to just 0.1 yuan per 500g. At the same time, cabbage and pork were trading at 0.08 and 0.6 yuan per 500g respectively, truly living up to its “cabbage-price” reputation.

This era of bargain-basement croakers was made possible by the widespread adoption of a specialised fishing technique known as *qiaogu*.

Often shortened colloquially to “knocking on bamboo poles” (a phrase that ironically doubles as slang for swindling), *qiaogu* traces its roots to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The method employs two mother vessels and several dozen smaller boats forming a ring. Crews continuously beat bamboo planks lashed to the hulls, sending vibrations through the water to drive the fish inward. As the circle tightens, the striking intensifies, stunning the croakers so they can be scooped up in a single haul.

● The large yellow croaker belongs to the Sciaenidae family. Two specialised otoliths in its skull resonate abnormally when exposed to loud noises, often causing concussion, fainting, or even death.

Once adopted by fishermen in Zhejiang, this low-cost, highly efficient method led to a dramatic surge in local yellow croaker catches. The peak year was 1974, when provincial authorities repeatedly organised large-scale deep-sea expeditions to the species’ distant wintering grounds. In that year alone, catches from the East China Sea area reached 190,000 tonnes.

While this acoustic fishing technique guaranteed a plentiful and affordable supply, it came at the grim cost of what can only be described as extinction-level harvesting. In waters where the method was deployed, every fish—regardless of size—was stunned unconscious, triggering a precipitous collapse in wild large yellow croaker stocks. Under relentless fishing pressure, the national catch plummeted to less than 20,000 tonnes by 1988, and since 1990, reliable fishing seasons have all but vanished.

To older generations in Shanghai, the large yellow croaker was a dish believed to bring good fortune and an indispensable centrepiece at banquets. The fish had to be substantial; when stocks were plentiful, specimens weighing three to five *jin* (roughly 1.5 to 2.5 kg) were commonplace. Yet by the 1990s, wild large yellow croaker had vanished from Shanghai dinner tables for years on end.

Scarcity, naturally, drives up value.Once as cheap as cabbages, wild large yellow croaker now routinely commands prices running into several thousand yuan per *jin*.

In January 2022, a fishing boat operating near Xiangshan in Zhejiang hauled in nearly 4,000 *jin* of wild large yellow croaker in a single net. The catch fetched a total of 9.57 million yuan, working out to more than 2,000 yuan per *jin*. Similarly, during the winter of 2023, rural fishermen from Ningbo caught a solitary wild specimen—67 cm long and weighing 4.8 *jin*—near Zhongyangshan Island in Ninghai Bay. That single fish sold for 26,600 yuan.

● Live streams showcasing sea fishing for large yellow croaker have also drawn massive audiences. Yet in reality, the fish are likely scooped straight from net pens, loaded onto a small boat, and used to stage a fishing trip.
On one side lay the scarcity and exorbitant prices of wild large yellow croaker; on the other, a massive market demand that had persisted for decades. Consequently, the aquaculture industry for the species emerged to meet the need.

II. From ‘Working the Sea’ to Aquaculture

Large yellow croakers die almost immediately upon leaving the water, which once led experts to believe they could not be farmed. Driven by market demand, however, the technical hurdles of their aquaculture have long been overcome.

Today, the large yellow croaker is China’s most extensively farmed marine fish species. According to 2022 figures, Ningde’s output accounts for 96 per cent of the national total, with production tripling over a single decade.

Traditional cage farming remains the primary method for rearing them.

Initially, most growers relied on small, floating cages, which were simple in design, inexpensive, and required little expertise to operate.Yet this equipment was outdated and ill-suited to withstand heavy weather. Confined to shallow bays and nearshore waters, packing these cages at unsustainable densities triggered a cascade of environmental consequences: restricted water circulation, sinking feed fouling the seabed, and ecological loads that vastly exceeded the marine area’s carrying capacity. This heightened the risk of red tides and severely disrupted the local marine ecosystem.

Following the introduction of aquaculture bans in certain nearshore zones, the footprint of conventional cage farming has steadily contracted. Today, interconnected frame cages have taken their place as the industry standard.

These systems offer significantly improved stability in rough seas, allowing operations to extend further out into shallow offshore waters.

Joined together, the cages form stable floating platforms sturdy enough to walk across and even accommodate living quarters, where growers carry out daily feeding and maintenance. As most Ningde fishermen keep their homes on land, they colloquially refer to heading out to sea as “going down below”.

● Top left: traditional wooden fish rafts; top right: plastic fish rafts; bottom: large pontoon cages.
It is fair to say that over the past twenty-odd years, the farmed large yellow croaker industry has filled a colossal void in market supply. That said, a profound gulf in flavour persists between the farmed fish now circulating in markets and their once-thriving wild counterparts.

Those who have tasted wild large yellow croaker can almost invariably tell the difference: the wild fish boasts a refined texture, a clean fragrance free of off-odours, low fat content, and flesh that naturally separates into delicate, clove-like segments. Farmed specimens, by contrast, often carry an earthy or muddy taste alongside other off-flavours; they tend to be plumper and rounder, cloyingly rich, with loose, stringy flesh that carries a distinctly farmed character.

Accordingly, this disparity in taste is starkly reflected in the price. Traditional devotees remain deeply unsatisfied with farmed varieties, continuing to elevate the mythos of the wild catch, which in turn has further cemented its premium pricing. In Ningde, a major hub for large yellow croaker farming, the price gap between a one-jin (500g) wild fish and its farmed equivalent can exceed twentyfold.

It is within this vast price differential that “semi-wild” large yellow croaker has emerged to meet the moment.

III. From Aquaculture to “Semi-Wild”

The early objectives of large yellow croaker aquaculture were strikingly straightforward: keep the fish alive and pack on weight efficiently. A wild specimen requires two years to reach 400g, whereas a farmed one can be brought to market in as little as six months. At the time, this was welcome news, signalling genuine promise for the industry.

Today’s breeders face a fresh challenge: how to raise the fish properly, enhance its added value, stave off price collapses, and bring the farmed product as close to the wild specimen as possible.

To cultivate large yellow croaker with superior flavour and higher added value, farmers must keep the fish in water conditions that closely mimic the wild, enforcing a regimen of “eat less, move more”.

● The stake-supported net enclosures at the semi-wild large yellow croaker farm in Ningde resemble a vast football pitch for the fish, with depths reaching over 20 metres.

The manager of Ningde’s ‘semi-wild’ large yellow croaker facility told me that to preserve the fish’s flavour, they aim to replicate natural growth conditions: low stocking density, minimal feeding, high activity levels, vast water volume, and strong currents. This approach demands meticulous management. To align with the croaker’s biological rhythms, feeding is withheld when temperatures drop. Conversely, during spring tides when tidal currents intensify and the fish become more active, supplementary feed is provided.

Consequently, unlike conventionally farmed croakers, these semi-wild fish grow at a more deliberate pace. It takes four years to raise a single semi-wild large yellow croaker to a market weight of 1.5 jin (approximately 750 grams).

● Beyond traditional net cages and deep-sea pens, net enclosure farming has emerged in recent years, primarily in Fujian Province. This method largely recreates a wild habitat, with enclosures reaching depths of over 20 metres. According to the report *Quality Evaluation and Grading of Large Yellow Croaker Across Different Farming and Distribution Models*, fish raised in net enclosures consistently yield metrics closest to those of wild specimens.

Semi-wild large yellow croakers raised in net enclosures and deep-water pens undoubtedly boast superior quality and prove highly profitable. However, they also carry greater risks and higher cultivation costs. Moreover, as ‘semi-wild yellow croaker’ is a relatively new market offering, producers must simultaneously navigate the complexities of marketing and sales across a lengthy commercial chain. Independent small-scale farmers are largely priced out of this sector, mostly able to participate only through cooperative arrangements with larger corporate groups.

If terrestrial farming still permits meticulous cultivation on a mere one mu of land, marine aquaculture is unequivocally a capital- and resource-intensive venture. Resources are heavily consolidated, market concentration is pronounced, and small producers are left struggling to secure even a modest share.

● The distinctive flavour profile of semi-wild (wild-reared) yellow croaker mirrors that of their wild counterparts, allowing skilled chefs to showcase their craft and elevate the fish’s inherent qualities. This paves the way for a new generation of signature dishes, thereby fostering positive market recognition for wild-reared croaker.
Beyond the steep barriers to entry for small producers, another criticism levelled at ‘semi-wild’ large yellow croaker is straightforward: wild is wild, farmed is farmed—what room is there for an in-between?

‘Semi-wild’ is simply a market term for fish occupying the space between fully farmed and truly wild. There are no official production standards attached to it. These fish might come from optimised traditional net cages, or from high-investment, precision farming using enclosure nets or deep-water cages. At present, the market still lacks a more nuanced grading system and a robust traceability framework for farmed large yellow croaker.

IV. Draining the Pond to Catch the Fish

Reflecting on the past fifty years of the large yellow croaker’s story: humanity’s relentless extraction from the sea once amounted to draining the pond to catch every fish; after breaking through aquaculture bottlenecks, farmed croakers nearly flooded the market; today, we have embarked on a path of ‘near-wild aquaculture’, endlessly chasing the semblance of the truly wild. For coastal fishermen who once relied on this species, life has transformed from a precarious existence dictated by the weather and tides into modern aquaculture that collaborates with the marine environment.

Through all the twists and turns, the large yellow croaker’s value anchor has scarcely moved. It is always ‘wild’.

I have eaten wild large yellow croaker. That delicate, unadulterated taste comes closest to what we might call ‘the flavour of nature’. I have often grumbled about the muddy, overly fishy taste of farmed specimens. But having traced the source of that flavour and examined the various ways croakers are raised, I now cherish the wild fish and seafood still accessible to us all the more.

What strikes me is this: after an era of reckless resource extraction, modern consumers can only hope to recapture ‘the flavour of nature’ through ever-increasing investment and cost.

If we had known then what we know now, why did we take that path?

References:

[1] *Aquaculture of Large Yellow Croaker*, Department of Science and Technology of Fujian Province, 2004, Beijing

 [2] *Quality Evaluation and Grading of Large Yellow Croaker under Different Aquaculture Models and Distribution Channels*, Shi Yuzhuo, 2022

 [3] *Preliminary Research on the Relationship Between Nutrition and the Quality of Farmed Large Yellow Croaker*, Ma Rui, 2014 

[4] *Nearly 1.6 Billion Large Yellow Croaker Fry Released into the Sea Over Eight Days! Over 140 Hatcheries Voluntarily Sign Release Agreements—Will It Turn Around a Collapsed Market?*, Daguo Yuye (Major Fisheries), 2019

Foodthink Author

Wei Hang

An independent writer who moves between fields and kitchens, observing and immersing themselves in the evolution of contemporary food culture.

 

 

 

Images sourced from the author and the web

Editor: Ze’en

Published by Foodthink