Why is fish slimy?

Many of you know slime as the milky substance that’s on your fillets, but that slime actually plays a very important role for the fish.

That slime helps the fish:

• glide in the water
• balance their electrolytes
• heal any cuts or scratches
• protect against harmful bacteria
• and regulate buoyancy by exchanging gases through their skin

Do you not like the slime? If you don’t, some evolutionary biologists will tell you that you’re not supposed to! They suggest it also exists to deter predators because of the unpleasant taste or texture.

You may find a bit more slime on your Springhills fish than other fish because of how fast we fillet and freeze it.

Our team is so quick that we harvest, fillet, rinse, vac-pack and freeze your fish in less than 5 hours. A side effect of how fast and fresh we are, is that some water may mix with the slime and make it appear slimier than it really is.

Fish slime should only affect the flavour if it’s been sitting and oxidizing for a week or more. But because of how fresh our fish is, it shouldn’t affect anything.

If you find some extra of the slime and water mixture in your vac-bag, you can rinse it off in the sink. If it stays stuck to the fillet (the coho salmon is the trickiest!), then you can scrape the skin with a butter knife.

Should the slime bug you, you can rinse it again in the sink. If the slime sticks to the skin, you can gently use a cloth or a butter knife moving from head to tail.

If you want to trust our father, he used to tell our mother to put the slime on her face to look 10 years younger! So RISE AND SLIME, it’s fish time!