Quote from: GeWnYnNyNwEg on December 28, 2013, 12:34:25 PM
The thread wouldn't be complete without mentioning unagi (barbecued eel). Yum! 

I can't help hearing that word without immediately thinking of this:

Some relationships between fish production and diversity of cuisine.





FAO fishing Area 61 shows the highest marine-capture fisheries production in the world oceans, followed by area 27, especially along the Norwegian coast. Fishing area 61 includes Japan and Korea where fish consumption per person is the highest in the world and the diversity of sea food cuisines is also the highest.

When I offered fermented skates, the Norwegian guest commented that they have a similar cuisine for sharks, but he did not try. A Chinese did try it, although their dishes are mostly based on terrestrial animals.

Nowadays, Chinese began to consume raw fishes and prices of fish and shellfish are steeply increasing in the region. Chinese especially prefer sea cucumber, and the most expensive ones are from cold-water seas such as Hokkaido, Japan. People in the region worry that sea cucumber will go extinct within a few decades.



barbie~~

Quote from: Gwynne on December 28, 2013, 12:34:25 PM
The thread wouldn't be complete without mentioning unagi (barbecued eel). Yum! 

They are Anguilla japonica (Japanese eel) that spawn in the deep Mariana Trench and their larvae migrate to coastal areas and rivers of Japan and Korea in spring. In Europe, Anguilla anguilla is used for sea food in some countries such as England (have you ever watched the German movie, Die Blechtrommel (The tin drum?). In America, it is Anguilla rostrata.

Those eels are now produced from aquaculture, as the population size has dramatically decreased recently around the world. Here in my country, there is no official price for eels from the nature, as they are so rare. Just one big one could be as pricey as US$5,000, about 10 years ago. Eels from aquaculture costs about US$50 per 1 kg here in my home town. Once or twice per year, I visit an eel restaurant for specialty. They very delicious, but you can not eat so much because of they are very oily

barbie~~

Barbie, thank you for both of those posts. They were both wonderfully informative and detailed. The second map indicates commercial harvest across the open ocean at equatorial latitudes. I had no idea. I've always thought of fisheries as confined to the shelf.

Quote from: Gwynne on January 02, 2014, 11:36:11 PM
Barbie, thank you for both of those posts. They were both wonderfully informative and detailed. The second map indicates commercial harvest across the open ocean at equatorial latitudes. I had no idea. I've always thought of fisheries as confined to the shelf.

Gwynne,

Tuna and tuna-like species such as swordfish are the major fisheries products in the small islands of the equatorial areas. Some countries there are exclusively dependent on tuna fisheries for their economy.

Most of tuna harvested from the ocean go to Japan. For Japanese people, tuna is a must for their everyday life. They should eat at least once or twice per week. In my country, tuna was not so much popular, but nowadays its consumption is steadily increasing, especially the canned products.

A good news is that fishing grounds of bluefin tuna is moving northward by global warming from the Japanese sea waters to Korean sea waters, especially around my hometown. But fishermen here are not prepared for processing and preserving tuna they catch.

I also like tuna, especially in the form of frozen tuna called maguro in Japanese, but they are rather expensive. However, the recent radioactive accidents at Fukushima, Japan, have driven the panic and the price down of tuna here. It is a good time to eat more tuna.

barbie~~