The National Aquarium in Baltimore:
What's Kosher?
If you need a family friendly destination, one that is both educational and fun for all ages –and you are visiting the Washington area, we suggest The National Aquarium in Baltimore. Some members of our family (ages 1-9) along with their parents recently visited the aquarium. Their Hanukkah assignment - have as much fun as possible, and report on the kosher fish. (Yes, one of my grandchildren was also on a search for sharks).
We thank our roving reporters (Shaya, age 9, Sara, age 8, and their younger siblings) for getting the fish facts and for this story:
The Baltimore Aquarium has many fish, some kosher and some not. Scary looking sharks, snakelike eels, sawfish with big noses, huge sturgeons, and piranhas with big teeth are all not kosher. All kosher fish have fins and removable scales. These don't. As the roving reporters for KosherEye, we were concentrating on the kosher fish.
Now about our kosher finds:
Kosher fish come in a lot of different shapes, colors, and sizes. The Black Banded Rainbowfish is kosher, but not worth eating at 2.5 inches long. Redbreast Sunfish, as you can tell from its name, are red. They grow to 10 inches long. The Yellow-faced Angelfish is a yellow and blue fish
that is 14 inches long.
The next time you go scuba diving in the Chesapeake Bay, try to find a Summer Flounder. You say it's impossible? Well, you almost got it. You might have seen one without knowing it. Flounder are very good at camouflage. They look like gravel on the ocean floor. Believe it or not...a fully-grown Summer Flounder grows to 3 feet.
More impressive than the small little fishies, are Crevalle Jacks. They grow to 6 feet long and are very fast (and delicious). At the aquarium, they were swimming with the sharks. Barramundi are bigger than the Crevalle Jacks and can grow to 6.5 feet long. They swim in the waters near Australia. Striped Bass and Rockfish are the same size as Crevalle Jacks. They can be found right in our own backyard, since we live near the Chesapeake Bay, but their population is decreasing because of pollution-- so don't eat too many.
The National Aquarium was fun and we learned a lot. Maybe you should go there soon. But after all this we still have a question. If a Bucktooth Tetra (a scale eating fish) ate all the scales off another kosher fish, would the fish still be kosher? (Guess we'll have to ask our father, the Rabbi!)