I'm
planning a trip up to Akita, Iwate, and Miyagi prefectures
this coming February. It seems there are a whole bunch
of winter festivals taking place all in the same week
so it is a great chance for me to cover a lot of ground
in a very short time as I start to explore Northern
Japan.
I'm really looking forward to it.
--
While picking up a case of beer after
work today (24 cans in a case, 24 hours in a day,..
a coincidence? I THINK NOT!) I got the best 35th
Birthday present ever, no matter if it was 9 days late.
You see, the woman at the checkout register acually
carded me when I placed the case of beer on the counter.
(Bless her heart)
I know that they are trained to card
anyone who looks within 10 years of being of legal age,
not only if they look under age 20 (the drinking age
here in Japan), but that still gives me a good 5 years
worth of the benefit of the doubt.
--
Japan can be an expensive place.
There are horror stories of $250 taxi
rides to the airport, $100 melons, and $15 cups of coffee.
And while it has gotten better (cheaper)
since the bubble popped, from time to time you hear
about something selling for a ridiculous amount of money.
A case in point is a blue fin tuna
that was sold yesterday for a whooping 9.75 million
yen at the Tsukiji fish market. Thatfs $85,000 for a
fish! Granted, it is a really really BIG fish (325 kg,
or about 717 lbs) but still, itfs a fish selling for
$119 per pound for crying out loud.
Once it hits a restaurant diners plate
the cost per pound has increased quite a bit, and the
really amusing part is that the restaurant does not
even have to cook it! Just slice off a slab (not too
thick now!) and slap in on a plate. Bingo. Done.
But there is a perfectly logical reason
for these exorbitant prices.
Japanese people are freeking nuts!
No, just kidding.
The real reason is that fish of this
size and quality are getting extremely rare and the
old economic law of supply and demand is in play.
After more than 5 decades of commercial
fishing, the worlds oceans are really starting to feel
the stress. A report I recently read stated that the
population of blue fin tuna, along with other large
predatory fish has declined by more than 90%. And order
of magnitude. That is significant.
There is some uncertainty as to when
blue fin reach maturity and are able to spawn, but the
consensus is that it is around 12 years. Seeing as it
takes a long time for these fish to reach maturity,
and the fact that they are under constant fishing pressure
it is a sure bet that even if all fishing were stopped
today the species would be on a long road to recovery.
I'm not advocating the halt to all
commercial fishing. not at all. But it would be nice
if a little foresight could get injected ito the situation.
This is highly unlikely though due to the pure economics
of the situation
In the late 1990fs there was some
good news. Japan, along with other Pacific rim nations,
agreed to a cap on the amount of fish allowed to be
taken in a year. But Japans insatiable appetite for
blue fin tuna lead them to conduct an unsanctioned gexperimental
fishing g season in 1998 that netted Japan an additional
1,464 tons of blue fin tuna in a short 6 week period.
This is a nearly 24% increase in the agreed upon limit
of 6,065 tons per year for Japanese commercial fishing.
"experimental fishing."
Sounds pretty fishy to me. (Pun intended)
What is "experimental fishing"?
Do they quiz the fish? Ask them penetrating questions,
have them perform long division, or some other feat?
To me this "experimental fishing"
sounds suspiciously similar to Japans whale hunts conducted
in the name of "Scientific research". The
basic definition of scientific research meaning "how
many whales does it take to feed Japans whale eating
population each year?"
After the whales are caught some basic measurements
are taken and the data is recorded before the whales
are hauled aboard a meat processing ship to be sliced
up and delivered to market.
There are numerous reports that point to a roughly 90%
reduction of the oceans large predatory fish population.
Some somewhat unscientific but seemingly corroborating
evidence of this is the fact that in the 1940's long
line fishermen in Japan used to catch 10 big fish for
every 100 hooks set out on a longline. Today that very
same line of 100 hooks takes in on average only 1 large
fish.
I think that the idea that the ocean
is a limitless reservoir of bounty has to fall by the
wayside, otherwise we risk exhausting these resources
to the point of collapse, much the same way we are doing
with oil, arable land, fresh water, etc..
It may not be too much longer before
that old Starfish Tuna TV commercials tag line is used
in a more somber light. What else can we say when we
pull the last giant tuna out of the ocean other than
"Sorry Charlie."
Comment 26
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