Pangasius bocourti
| Basa fish, Pangasius bocourti | |
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| Basa fish in Vinh Long market, Vietnam | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Siluriformes |
| Family: | Pangasiidae |
| Genus: | Pangasius |
| Species: | P. bocourti |
| Binomial name | |
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Pangasius bocourti Sauvage, 1880 |
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The basa fish (Pangasius bocourti) is a species of catfish in the family Pangasiidae. Basa are native to the Mekong and Chao Phraya basins in Indochina. These fish are important food fish with an international market. They are often labeled in North America and Australia as "basa fish", "swai", or "bocourti". In the UK all species of Pangasius may legally be described as "river cobbler", "cobbler", "basa", "pangasius", "panga", or any of these with the addition of "catfish". In the rest of Europe, these fish are commonly marketed as "pangasius" or "panga". Other related shark catfish may occasionally be incorrectly labeled as basa fish, including P. hypophthalmus (iridescent shark) and P. pangasius (yellowtail catfish).
The body of the basa is stout and heavy. The rounded head is broader than it is long, with the blunt snout having a white band on its muzzle. This species grows to a standard length of 120 centimetres (47 in).
Basa fish feed on plants. They spawn at the onset of flood season and the young are first seen in June, averaging about 5 cm by mid-June.
In 2002, the United States accused Vietnam of dumping catfish, namely P. bocourti and P. hypophthalmus, on the American market, arguing that the Vietnamese importers, who are subsidized by Vietnam's government, constituted unfair competition. With pressures from the U.S. catfish industry, the United States Congress passed a law in 2003 preventing the imported fish from being labelled as catfish, as well as imposing additional tariffs on the imported fish. Under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruling, only species from the family Ictaluridae can be sold as true catfish. As a result, the Vietnamese exporters of this fish now label their products sold in the U.S. as basa fish or bocourti.
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Wikipedia