The Comoros archipelago, also known as ‘Juzur al Qamar’ in Arabic (or ‘Island of the Moon’), has four main islands and three official languages: Comorian, Arabic, and French. The country welcomes between 5,000 and 50,000 tourists per year. It has a greater coastal capacity than its neighbours Mauritius and Seychelles combined.

It is famous for its cultural orientation, which is heavily influenced by Arab civilisation. It was the Shirazis, with their trade in nutmeg, turmeric, cloves, vanilla, and ylang-ylang, who spread Swahili civilisation around the 9th century. They were Persian traders from Iran, originally from the city of Shiraz (or Chiraz), who founded sultanates in the Comoros Islands.

With 340 km of coastline, the archipelago is fortified with recognised coastal municipalities. The local diet is based on regional produce, fruit, meat and fish. Fish has always been an important part of the Comorian diet, whether as a starter, main course, snack or soup, and is a regular feature on Comorian plates. Grab your spoon, knife and fork, because in this article we’re talking about the famous fish of the Comoros.

Coelacanth

Just this once, to introduce you to this fish, we’re going to talk about football again.

The symbol and name of the national football team, the coelacanth is a fish that is famous in the Comoros. The fish can be found on many stamps and on the 1,000 franc note and 5 franc coin.

It is a 350-million-year-old species that dates back to the age of the dinosaurs. It is rarely eaten because its meat is bitter and bland. The largest schools of coelacanths are found off the coast of the Comoros at depths of between 150 and 700 metres, southeast of the Comoros near the volcanic seabed.

It is worth noting that the Comoros Islands and Madagascar are thought to be related to the Magellanic Clouds, a constellation in another galaxy that navigators used for orientation because the North Star is not visible in the southern hemisphere.

Tuna

A fish that we will introduce to you in more detail, tuna is found in the Comoros Islands, where there are three species: skipjack tuna, albacore tuna, and bigeye tuna. Its meat is extremely rich in protein and is pinkish-red in colour. In the Indian Ocean, it grows to a length of 80 cm, reaching up to 2.40 m.
Many tuna recipes can be found in the archipelago’s restaurants, and one of the most famous and accessible of all is fried tuna served with rice. To prepare the recipe, season your tuna slices with salt, pepper, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and curry, then fry them in hot oil. The rice is cooked by pouring it into a saucepan of boiling water and cooking for about 25 minutes until the water in the saucepan is absorbed by the rice – ⅓ rice to ⅔ water.

The sunfish

The sunfish is another fish found off the coast of the Comoros archipelago. It is one of the most corpulent fish with a bone structure on the planet. Its weight often exceeds a tonne and can reach twice that amount: this fish never stops growing; the more it eats, the more it grows.
In Europe, the consumption of sunfish is prohibited, but it is a prime meat in Asia, particularly in Japan.
In the Comoros, influenced by Western customs, the mola is rarely eaten, even though it is still fished by fishermen.

Sole

Generally a flat fish with brown and creamy white skin, sole is a species found off the coast of the Comoros. It is eaten as fillets in European recipes such as fish with béarnaise sauce, fish tartare, fish à la marinière or fish with hollandaise sauce.
Sole encompasses a wide variety of fish, around 180 species. In the Comoros archipelago, milk sole is the most commonly found species.

Captain

A fish with rich flesh, the captain is caught in the Comorian seas. Of the Lethrinus genus, it is the Lethrinus nebulosus and Lethrinus mahsena, white captain and mahsena captain, that are caught in the Indian Ocean. The fish is carnivorous and measures 40 to 90 cm. It is a robust species of fish, prized both for its flesh and its symbolism. The fish can be eaten smoked, in carpaccio, in salad or cooked with various sauces. It should be noted that the fish has an elegant appearance.

The wrasse

Also known as ‘labrum’ from its scientific name Labridae, Latin for ‘lip’, the wrasse is a genus found in the waters of the Comoros archipelago. It is a fish with between 600 and 500 species, making it the second largest family of fish in the world after the cyprinids. This family of fish includes cleaner fish. The smallest member of the family is Minilabrus striatus, the ‘tiny wrasse’, measuring no more than 6 cm, and the largest is Chelinus undulatus, or the ‘Napoleon fish’, growing up to 2.30 m.

Sea bream

Found in Comorian waters, sea bream is a fish with a delicate and flavourful taste. In the Indian Ocean, it is fished during the off-season from September to October and from March to April. It is a medium-sized fish, measuring approximately 50 cm to 70 cm maximum. In the Comoros, it is eaten grilled, in curry sauce, tomato sauce or mustard sauce, and is also very popular in Europe.

Eel

A species that was very common in the archipelago during the 20th century, eel is now rarer in Comorian fishmongers. Fish is a delicacy on the islands, particularly prized for its high animal fat content. Rural dwellers enjoy eel meat more than city dwellers, eating it in sauce or broth.

The gourami

This fish is famous for aquarium decoration, as it has very slender filaments on its belly that are used to detect changes in its environment. The fish has a captivating appearance and measures between 6 cm and 7 cm. There are 90 species across 15 genera. This type of fish is deeply rooted in gastronomic culture and is often eaten fried.