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It’s only Pacific saury
A fish shop in the Suidozuji shopping district in Nada Ward, Kobe City.
I stood there with a cold bag in one hand and my wallet in the other, trying to buy the ingredients for today's side dish. A silver stainless steel stand was covered with ice, on which were lined up Akashi bream, Akashi octopus, Spanish mackerel, sardines, mackerel, sweetfish, hamo fish, and Pacific saury. I stood there with my wallet because I saw the price of the Pacific saury.
"500 yen per fish."
It was a very ordinary fish. It didn't seem to be a brand-name fish from Akkishi.
The fishmonger's wife was also standing there, not really talking to me.
"Excuse me…”
I said, trying to squeeze it out.
"Ayu, please."
"Thanks !"
In the end, I bought an Ayu for 150 yen per fish, grilled it and ate it with vinegar sauce.
It was delicious.
The price of Pacific saury is very high this year, just because people have been talking about it since early in the year. At this rate, it may become popular to eat Pacific saury for the autumn version of Doyo no Ushi.
However, the reason why we can't catch this much fish must be because of overfishing by foreign countries. If this continues, there will be no fish left to eat in Japan!
When I looked into it, I found that it was still there.
For example, JIJI.COM. Jan. 7, 2020.
https://www.jiji.com/jc/graphics?p=ve_eco_nourinsuisan20200107j-02-w410
In recent years, Japan's annual landings of Pacific saury have hovered around 100,000 tons, falling to less than one-tenth of the 1958 peak of 580,000 tons in 2007. One of the reasons for the slump in landings is that large fishing vessels from China and Taiwan are "preempting" the migrating saury before they reach the fishing grounds in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from the high seas to the east of Japan.
However, this article does not provide any evidence for this, nor does it give the name of the person who wrote the article.
Other articles continue to say that global warming is the cause, again with no clear evidence.
And still no name of the person who wrote it.
After much research, I finally found "Gyoppy!
It seems to be a site run by Yahoo! that was created with the goal of protecting the richness of the ocean.
There was an article on this site titled "It's not China's fault that we can't catch saury? The truth about the poor catch that the media won't tell you".
https://gyoppy.yahoo.co.jp/originals/37.html
According to this, the Pacific saury is not a Japanese fish to begin with. They live just north of Hawaii! They migrate south in the fall to lay their eggs, and part of the school passes by Japan, so the fish can only be caught in Japan in the fall.
Therefore, the timing of the catch can be off, and even if not much is caught in September, it will be caught in October, and the catch is not the same every year.
If you think about it, the Pacific saury is not a Japanese product, but rather a result of the fact that the number of Pacific saury is decreasing due to the fact that they are not able to lay eggs satisfactorily as a result of the fact that they have been catching all the spawning Pacific saury that happen to pass by.
For more information, please read the article at the URL above, but it clearly shows that the decline in the catch of Pacific saury is not due to foreign overfishing.
By using the key phrase "foreign overfishing," they are creating a "culprit" to guide public opinion and hide the negligence of governments that do not normally protect shared resources through international discussions and agreements.
BY THE WAY
One of Yasujiro Ozu's movies is called "The Taste of Fish", but to my surprise, there is no Pacific saury in this movie. All that appears in the film is alcohol, such as Tris Whiskey and Sapporo Akaboshi. In the past, they used to run commercials during the film, so I guess they are sponsors, but I don't know why they named the film "The Taste of Pacific saury". However, just by hearing the title, I thought to myself, "Ah, the taste of the Japanese. That's how autumn is associated with the Pacific saury, and how it has been loved by the people of the city.
It's a culture I don't want to lose.
I would like to see the government do something more serious, such as making an international agreement, instead of just guiding public opinion. For the sake of a beautiful Japan.
Yukiko Yako
