The Jetpacker

Lobster in Maine.  Crawfish in Louisiana.  And cownose ray in Virgina.  All well-known, locally-caught seafood, right?

Okay, so cownose ray isn’t that popular, not even with the locals.  But if officials in Virginia get their way, it will be soon.

That’s because they want tourists and locals alike to start eating up as many cownose rays as they can stomach.

See, the Virginia seafood scene thrives on oysters, clams and scallops, but those pesky cownose rays are eating all of them.

Even worse, the cownose ray population is booming because their main predator, the inland coastal shark, is disappearing.

So officials in Virgina are urging people to start eating (the more attractively named) Chesapeake Ray.  (They won’t admit it, but we know this is just revenge for Steve Irwin.)

Supposedly the fish is “not flaky… it has a texture and tastes closer to veal or beef.”

And the owner of Uncle Chuck’s Seafood in Virgina Beach backs this up:  “I have folks who buy it who are vegetarians because it tastes like red meat.”  (Doesn’t eating any kind of meat negate the purpose of being a vegetarian?)

So far, Chesapeake Ray hasn’t caught on, but as more restaurants and shops start serving it, that probably won’t may change.

As the saying goes, if it looks like beef and it tastes like beef, it must be… fish.  Sure, a fish that tastes like cow gives a whole new meaning to surf ‘n turf, but it just sounds freaky.  Would you eat it?