Pursuits
Why Whole Foods Wants You to Eat This Giant Amazonian Fish
Greater demand for paiche could attract commercial fish farmers
This article is for subscribers only.
The first time I encountered the Amazonian fish paiche, also called arapaima, was while watching the extreme-fishing show River Monsters. The thrashing, carnivorous fish had a bony head, required two men to lift it out of the water, and weighed about 150 pounds—a modest size for the largest fish in the Amazon River basin.
The second time I encountered paiche, I was at Whole Foods.