Seafood Trivia
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This seafood trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and covers everything that comes out of the water and ends up on a plate: lobster and crab, oysters, mussels and scallops, shrimp, squid and sea urchin, plus the great fish dishes of the world, from sushi and ceviche to fish and chips, bouillabaisse and Portugal's salt cod. There are questions on the science of seafood (why lobsters turn red, why oysters make pearls), on food history (who fried the first chips with fish, where the lobster roll was invented) and on the frankly alarming things people eat on purpose, like fermented shark and pufferfish liver. It works for a restaurant trivia night, a seafood boil, a beach party or a pub quiz round. Difficulty runs from easy openers to a handful of expert questions about caviar economics and geoduck lifespans. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic or primary source, and each question carries a citation you can inspect, so if a fact surprises you, you can see exactly where it comes from.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Lobsters have blue blood because their blood carries oxygen using a compound built around which metal?
Copper
Copper: lobster blood carries oxygen with hemocyanin, a copper-based molecule that turns blue when oxygenated; vertebrates use iron-based hemoglobin, which is why our blood is red.
Q 02The heaviest lobster ever caught, just over 20 kg per Guinness, came from the waters of which Canadian province?
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia: Guinness records a 20.14 kg (44 lb 6 oz) lobster caught off Nova Scotia in 1977 as the heaviest ever; lobsters keep growing throughout their lives.
Q 03A cooked lobster turns orange because heat breaks down a protein that had been masking which pigment?
Astaxanthin
Astaxanthin: in a live lobster the protein crustacyanin binds astaxanthin and turns it blue-black; heat unfolds the protein and frees the orange-red pigment, the same one fed to farmed salmon.
Q 04In colonial New England lobster was so abundant it was thought of as food for whom?
Servants and the poor
Servants and the poor: lobster was so plentiful in colonial New England that it was fed to servants and prisoners and even spread as fertiliser; the tale of laws capping servants at two servings a week is unsupported.
Q 05The lobster roll is commonly credited to a restaurant called Perry's in which Connecticut town?
Milford
Milford: Harry Perry's restaurant in Milford, Connecticut, is credited with the first lobster roll around 1929, served warm with butter; the cold mayonnaise version most people picture is the Maine style.
Q 06Under ideal laboratory conditions a single oyster can filter roughly how much water in a day?
190 litres
190 litres: under ideal lab conditions an adult oyster filters up to about 50 US gallons, roughly 190 litres, a day; Chesapeake Bay's historic reefs once filtered the whole estuary every few days.
Q 07The nucleus placed in an oyster to start a cultured pearl is usually a polished piece of what?
Mussel shell
Mussel shell: the bead nucleus is cut and polished from thick freshwater mussel shell, mostly from American rivers, which the oyster then coats in layers of nacre over the following years.
Q 08Oysters Rockefeller was invented in 1889 at Antoine's because it ran short of what?
Snails
Snails: Jules Alciatore of Antoine's in New Orleans created the dish in 1889 when imported snails ran short and local oysters stood in; he named it for John D. Rockefeller because the sauce was so rich.
Q 09Which tetrodotoxin-laden fish may only be prepared in Japanese restaurants by specially licensed chefs?
Pufferfish
Pufferfish: fugu carries tetrodotoxin in its liver and ovaries, so Japan allows only licensed chefs, who pass a prefectural exam after years of apprenticeship, to prepare and serve it.
Q 10Serving which part of the fugu, its tastiest and most poisonous, was banned in Japanese restaurants in 1984?
The liver
The liver: Japan's health ministry banned serving fugu liver in 1984; kabuki star Bandō Mitsugorō VIII had died in 1975 after eating four servings of it, insisting he was immune.
Q 11In which city did Hanaya Yohei invent nigiri sushi around 1824?
Edo
It was the fast food of Edo's townspeople, sold from street stalls long before it became fine dining.
Q 12The first conveyor belt sushi restaurant, Genroku Zushi, opened in what year?
1958
1958: Yoshiaki Shiraishi opened Mawaru Genroku Zushi in Higashiosaka in 1958, inspired by the conveyor belts of a beer factory; the format spread nationwide after Genroku exhibited at the 1970 Osaka Expo.
Q 13Traditionally, the word caviar refers only to the roe of which fish?
Sturgeon
Sturgeon: strictly, caviar is salt-cured sturgeon roe, classically beluga, osetra and sevruga from the Caspian; in the US only sturgeon roe may be sold simply as 'caviar', other eggs must name the fish.
Q 21The five-toothed chewing organ of a sea urchin is named after which ancient philosopher?
Aristotle
Aristotle: the urchin's jaw apparatus is called Aristotle's lantern after his description in Historia Animalium; the 'lantern' probably referred to the whole animal, which resembled the horn lamps of his day.
Q 22Bouillabaisse, the Provençal fish soup, originated in which port city?
Marseille
In 1980 eleven Marseille restaurateurs signed a Bouillabaisse Charter fixing the ingredients and method, and it must include rascasse.
Q 23Lutefisk, the Nordic Christmas dish, is dried whitefish that has been cured in what?
Lye
Straight out of the lye the fish has a pH of 11 to 12 and is inedible; days of soaking bring it back.
Q 14Iran's 'Almas' caviar comes from the eggs of a rare albino fish aged between how many years?
60 and 100
60 and 100: Almas ('diamond') comes from rare albino beluga sturgeon said to be 60 to 100 years old; its pale eggs are packed in 24-carat gold tins by Caviar House & Prunier.
Q 15Which immigrant opened the first recorded fish and chip shop in Bow, East London, around 1860?
Joseph Malin
Joseph Malin: an Ashkenazi Jewish immigrant, Malin opened a shop in Bow around 1860 that is usually counted as Britain's first fish and chip shop; John Lees of Mossley, Lancashire, is the rival northern claimant from 1863.
Q 16During the Second World War, fish and chips held what special status in Britain?
It was never rationed
It was never rationed: the wartime government kept fish and chips off the ration book to protect morale, though queues and shortages were common; Churchill called the pair 'the good companions'.
Q 17Ceviche is recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of which country?
Peru
Peru: UNESCO inscribed Peruvian ceviche on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2023; the dish's name appears in print as early as the 1820 patriotic song 'La Chicha'.
Q 18Paella takes its name from the word for what in Catalan and Valencian?
Frying pan
Frying pan: paella is the Valencian and Catalan word for the wide, shallow pan (from Latin patella) the rice is cooked in, so the dish took the vessel's name; the classic Valencian version uses chicken, rabbit and snails.
Q 19Which style of clam chowder is made with a clear broth, using neither milk nor tomatoes?
Rhode Island
Rhode Island: Rhode Island clam chowder is made with a clear broth of clam juice, potatoes, onion and salt pork, skipping both New England's milk and Manhattan's tomatoes.
Q 20Imitation crab sticks are made from surimi, a paste most often based on which fish?
Alaska pollock
Alaska pollock: most surimi is made from Alaska (walleye) pollock, a cheap, mild white fish whose minced flesh is washed, shaped and coloured to mimic crab; Japan has made fish paste since kamaboko appeared in 1115.
Q 24Swedish shops release each year's surströmming on the third Thursday of which month?
August
August: a royal decree once banned selling the year's surströmming before the third Thursday of August so it was fully fermented; the rule lapsed in the 1990s but producers keep the 'premiere' date.
Q 25Iceland's fermented national dish hákarl is made from the meat of which animal?
Greenland shark
Greenland shark: hákarl is Greenland shark fermented underground for weeks, then hung to dry for months; fresh, its flesh is toxic from urea and trimethylamine oxide, and Anthony Bourdain called it the worst thing he had ever eaten.
Q 26According to amphora inscriptions, the Roman fish sauce garum was most often made from which fish?
Mackerel
Mackerel: painted labels on Roman amphorae most often record garum scombri, sauce made from mackerel, with Spain's garum sociorum the prized grade; Pliny called garum 'the liquor from putrefaction', yet it fills the Apicius cookbook.
Q 27Which small fish is a key ingredient of both Worcestershire sauce and Caesar salad dressing?
Anchovy
Anchovy: Lea & Perrins' Worcestershire sauce lists fermented anchovies among its ingredients, and Caesar dressing gets its savoury depth from anchovy, either directly or through that same sauce.
Q 28Which sea snail has an ear-shaped shell with a row of holes and is called pāua in New Zealand?
Abalone
Abalone: abalone are marine gastropods with a flattened, ear-shaped shell pierced by a row of respiratory holes; New Zealand's pāua species has a vivid blue-green iridescent interior prized for mother-of-pearl inlay.
Q 29The geoduck, the world's largest burrowing clam, has a typical lifespan of about how many years?
140
140: geoducks are among the longest-lived animals, with a typical lifespan around 140 years and recorded individuals past 160; the name comes from the Lushootseed word gʷidəq, and in Chinese it is the 'elephant-trunk clam'.
Q 30In 1983 which US state named the crawfish its official state crustacean?
Louisiana
Louisiana: the legislature made the crawfish Louisiana's official state crustacean in 1983; the state's ponds and Atchafalaya Basin supply most of the US crawfish crop, mostly red swamp and white river crayfish.