VIENNA, Austria: Austria’s public broadcaster ORF has been forced to apologize after a wave of criticism from angry fishermen for frying an endangered species during a cooking show.
On last week’s show, a chef shared his Lent-friendly recipe, featuring fish fritters and a roux-based potato salad.
But when the fishermen discovered that the endangered Frauennerfling fish, which has been on Austria’s red list since 2002, was sleeping in their pans.
Then some fishermen informed the Austrian Fisheries Association.
The fish, known by the scientific name rutilus pigus, is in danger of extinction in the wild due to the increase in water temperature and construction along the Danube River.
Earlier this week, Austrian public broadcasting apologized for cooking fish that are protected all year round, adding that “different information” was available.
The chef at the high-end restaurant said that he was very sorry for what happened, adding that after asked to be on the show at the last minute, he asked a friend to buy him fish.
He termed the incident an unfortunate chain of events because he said, he trusted a friend who had a licence to fish for a related species.
Since then, both have had sleepless nights, and the chef is worried that his restaurant in the national park will be seriously damaged.
