Arctoscopus japonicus

Sailfin sandfish
NE
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Trachinoidei
Family: Trichodontidae
Genus: Arctoscopus
Species: S. subligarius
Binomial name
Arctoscopus japonicus
(Steindachner, 1881)[1][2]
Synonyms
  • Trichodon japonicus Steindachner, 1881

Arctoscopus japonicus, the sailfin sandfish or Japanese sandfish, is a species of fish of the Perciformes (Perch-likes) order, Trichodontidae (sandfishes) family. Known in Japan as hatahata (ハタハタ, 鰰, 鱩, 燭魚), it is a commercially important fish especially for Akita and Yamagata prefectures.[3] Its habitat occurs in sandy-mud bottoms ranging from the Sea of Japan to the Okhotsk Sea.[1]

As a food source, the fish has mostly been sourced locally from the coastal region of the Sea of Japan, and has been designated the official prefectural fish of Akita Prefecture[4] The fish, which is scaleless, may be prepared whole as braised or grilled fish, and has a mucilagenous consistency.[5] It is also dried to make stockfish; salted, dried, and made into himono; and cured in miso as misozuke. It is the main ingredient of the fish sauce called shottsuru.[6] The egg masses are known as burikko.[6] In Korean the fish is called 도루묵 dorumuk.[1]

The fish had also been used dried or in fish meal form as fertilizer, and shipped to agricultural areas at one time, into the 20th century.

Life cycle and behavior

Arctoscopus japonicus has a life span of 5 years,[4] attaining a typical fork length of 20 centimetres (7.9 in).[7] It is a deep sea fish that usually inhabits sandy and muddy sea floors in waters 200 to 400 meters (550 meters[8]) deep, but migrates from November to January to spawn in shallow rocky beds of seaweed.[7] The males reach sexual maturity at 1 1/2 years of age and beyond, and females at the 2-year-old stage; the individuals do not die after single spawning, and have several breeding cycles during their life span.[4][4][9][10]

It preys and feeds on amphipods, copepods, mysidacea, krill, squid, and fish.[4][11]

Distribution

It is distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, particularly the Sea of Japan to the Okhotsk Sea, Kurile Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula.[12]

Three broad regional population groups had been postulated by Okiyama (1970) based on tagging,[13] and later mitochondrial DNA analysis confirmed these grouping on a genetic basis.[14] The population groups are:[15][16]

Catch production in the Tōhoku region (Northeastern Japan)'s Pacific coast (otherwise known as "Sanriku") is modest, and no regular spawning grounds have been confirmed.[16] Migration routes have not been charted, but their travel range is considered extensive, since individuals from the Hokkaido and Sea of Japan population groups have been captured in the Sanriku shore.[16]

External morphology

The color is silvery underneath, and light brown above with dark brown streaks flecked with spots.[21] Tall body depth, though not as tall as the Pacific sandfish (Trichodon trichodon).[22] Head and trunk are scaleless.[23][24]

A large mouth, oblique and turned upwards, is lined with rows of fine teeth.[24] The gill-flap on the cheek (preopercle) each has five sharp spines.[21] It has a first dorsal and a second dorsal fin that are separated by a gap.[21] The pectoral fins are particularly large.[21] The fish lacks an air-bladder.[25] It is active nocturnally, and during the day time lies buried in the mud or sand on the sea bottom, with only the mouth and eyes (and the spine) visible.[21][26]

The egg mass (roe) is usually green, but may also have yellow, red, or brown coloration. Pigment components present in the eggs include bilin and carotenoids such as idoxanthin, crustaxanthin, and vitamin A2 aldehyde (3-dehydroretinal). The bilin and retinal produces the base green color, and the amount of relative idoxanthin content is the key determinant of the color variation. Study of its prey (such as the amphipods) or the fish's stomach contents reveal negligible traces of idoxanthin and crustaxanthin, which means the fish must be internally converting other carotenoid substances such as astaxanthin that are abundant in their food into idoxanthin and crustaxanthin, given that fish in general cannot build their own carotenoid wholly out of building block materials. Researchers hypothesize that the intake of astaxanthin influences the idoxanthin concentration in the body, which result in the egg color change.[27]

Classification

In the current taxonomy, the species is classified under the Perciformes (Perch-likes) order, Trachinoidei suborder, and Trichodontidae (sandfishes) family. However, mitochondrial DNA analysis indicates that the species is more closely related to Cottus spp. of the Scorpaeniformes order.[28]

Similar species

Nomenclature

The Japanese name hatahata may be written as 鰰, which consists of the fish radical 魚 combined with the character kami (神) "god". Shokusanjin (Ōta Nampo) records the lore that it came to be written this way "because within its scales arises the pattern of Mt. Fuji, and was celebrated as auspicious fish," though the actual species has no scales.[30]

An alternate Japanese name is kaminari-uwo (雷魚) "thunder fish", which derives from their spawning (and catching) season coinciding with the months when thunderstorms become frequent.[5][31][32] In fact, hatahata is an old onomatopoeia representing the sound of the thunderclap, whose use is attested in the 10th century Kagerō Nikki, and which is the root of the verb hatata-ku "to thunder."[5][33]

In the Akita dialect, hatahata sounds like hadahada to non-natives, because the "ta" is locally pronounded in voiced unaspirated dakuon, so that hadahada is sometimes listed as a local name for the fish.[34] In Akita, the fish sometimes bears the name "satake uo" after the Satake clan who were rules of the land around 1600. But the Satakes were originally rooted in Hitachi Province (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture), and legend has it that the fish followed the masters from the old country (Shokusanjin notes that the legend is given in the Akita Suginaoshi monogatari (秋田杉直物語)).[5][35][lower-alpha 1] In Tottori Prefecture the fish is called shirohata or kitaha.[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3]

Fishing practices

The species is caught by bottom trawling offshore and by set-netting and gillnetting the coastal spawning waters.[3] The fish stock down further south are caught by Danish seine fishing.[36]

In Akita Prefecture, each household used to buy them in bulk by the crates (5 or 10 crates at a time) when in season, and the surplus would be preserved as salted fish or as nukazuke to be consumed as a protein source over the winter.[6][37]

FAO Statistics record that in 1950, the annual catch was 10,000 tons accounted solely in Japan, by the beginning of the 1970s Korean fisheries were catching half as much or more in tonnage as the Japanese. The global peak catch occurred in 1971 with 56,700 tons total, but by the end of the decade in 1979 there was a sharp collapse in the fish stock resulting in an annual catch of only 11,546 tons.[38][lower-alpha 4]

In Akita Prefecture, peak catch volume reached 15,000 tons per year,[39] but overfishing, possibly with an interplay of water temperature "regime" shifts, led to persisting depletion of stock,[40] so that the fishermen of Akita Prefecture, led by its Fisheries Cooperative Association self-imposed a total moratorium on the catch from 1992-1995[4][41] In 1999, four participating prefectures formed a fisheries management organization to manage the fish stock, followed in 2003 by a formal Resource Recovery Plan (資源回復計画) for these prefectures.[4] In Korea, the catch was 25,000 tons per year in 1971, but suffered a similar decline to 4,000 tons by 2008, and that country has also instituted conservation measures.[7]

Tottori prefecture is another area with significant participation in catching this species. Whereas Akita targets egg-carrying adults approach the surface to spawn, Tottori fishing practices capture the deep water migrating populations by bottom trawling, so that the caught fish tends to be fattier, though they do not carry eggs. The catch season for Tottori spans from September to May.[42][43]

Fishing restrictions

Uses

At one time, dried hatahata was one type of fish-based fertilizer (fish manure) being trafficked in Japan.[50][lower-alpha 5]

Food ingredient

Dried himono or stockfish of hatahata
An ekiben sold at Akita Station serves the fish chirashizushi style.

The fish lacks scale, has few small bones, and the spine separates easily from the flesh, so that they are usually poached or broiled whole, or just with the head off. If the fish is fresh, snapping the bone at the base of the tail beforehand, will make it easier for the spine to come off easily after broiling. Fresh hatahata can be served salted and broiled, or be poached in a pot flavored with soy sauce, sake kasu, but especially shottsuru in Akita the pot dish would be flavored with shottsuru, a fish sauce traditionally made by fermented the fish cured in brine.[6]

Another preparation is the dengaku (slathered with sweet miso paste and broiled),[51] which is eaten not only in Akita but also in the Shōnai region around Sakata, Yamagata.

The fish is preserved in various ways, such as nukazuke (pickled in rice bran and salt),[6] himono (as dried fish),[52] as mirinboshi, (mirin-based flavored dried fish).[53] It is also made into a preserved narezushi; in Akita the preserving medium consists of rice and koji (Aspergillus oryzae mold for brewing sake)[5][6] but in Tottori Prefecture the hatahata narezushi is known locally as shirohatazushi and uses okara (soy pulp).[54][55]

Fresh hatahata is suitable for mizuni or poaching or simmering in water (the dish in Yamagata is called yu-age[56]), and eaten with soy sauce. It can be made into hatahata-jiru (miso soup), but the miso should be dissolved in the broth before the fish is plunged, otherwise the fish falls apart.

In South Korea, the fish (known there as dorumuk (Korean: 도루묵)) is eaten in communities in Gangwon Province and elsewhere along the Sea of Japan (which Koreans call "Donghae" or "East Sea"). In Korea it is mainly an ingredient for jjigae hot pot dishes, but sometimes the roe-laden females are grilled and eaten.[57]

Shottsuru

Main article: shottsuru
shottsuru

Locally, a fish sauce called shottsuru is made from this fish. The sauce which literally means "salty juice",[6] is made by pickling and fermenting the salted fish, and straining out the debris. The fish sauce is used to flavor the shottsuru nabe, or pot dish that uses this flavoring to cook the hatahata with vegetable and other ingredients.[5][6] In the Akita dialect, the pot dish also sometimes called shottsuru kayaki, with "kayaki" being the local term for nabe or hot pot dish.

Roe

In the Akita dialect, the roe of this species is called buriko.[51] The fish is caught during its spawning season, when many of the females are loaded with eggs 2–3mm in diameter. The eggs are surrounded by slimy mucous.

Fresh roe that is cooked will burst and make light popping sounds when eaten, but roe from the fish preserved in salt or miso turn rubbery and hard to chew, resulting in a more blunt sound that sounds like buri buri which resulted in its name.[lower-alpha 6]

The Japanese folk ballad known as Akita ondo mentions the "Oga buriko" in the lyrics, which is a reference to the roe clusters.

Footnotes

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ Lowry explains the name stuck after the success of the Satake clan's success at exporting the fish as fertilizer.[5]
  2. ↑ Lowry gives kihata[5] as do some Japanese source, but kitaha seems to be supported by the majority
  3. ↑ Called shima aji in the vicinity of Nō, Niigata, though this is misleading that term refers to the white trevally in mainstream Japan. (漁村と島 (2004), p.81)
  4. ↑ Akita Prefecture alone caught 15,000 tons per year at its peak.[39]
  5. ↑ Statistics for quantities entering the Tokyo Market indicate over 15,000 hyō were shipped in 1903, but none during the other years from 1902 ~ 1911. Each hyō (straw bag) contained 8 ~ 4 shō. 東京商業会議所統計年報. 1924. pp. 34–35.
  6. ↑ There are alternate etymologies for buriko. One theory is that the mucous covered eggs bind together and are hard to separate, leading to the name 不離子 (buriko, "unseparable children"). Another theory proposes that during the Edo Period when collecting the eggs was prohibited, a forager evaded an official's interrogation saying they were the eggs of buri (yellowtail).[58]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2006). "Arctoscopus japonicus" in FishBase. April 2006 version.
  2. ↑ "Arctoscopus japonicus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved April 2014.
  3. 1 2 Masuda, Hajime (1984). The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago 1. Tokai University Press. p. 221. ISBN 4486050541.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Makino, Mitsutaku (2011), Fisheries Management in Japan: Its institutional features and case studies, Springer, p. 178, ISBN 9400717776
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lowry, Dave (2010), The Connoisseur's Guide to Sushi, ReadHowYouWant.com, pp. 116–118, ISBN 1458764141
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Homma, Gaku (1991). The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking: A Traditional Diet for Today's World. North Atlantic Books. p. 69. ISBN 1556430981.
  7. 1 2 3 Kim, Chang Gil; Lee, Sung Il; Cha, Hyung Kee; Yang, Jae Hyeong; Son, Yong Soo (2011), "Enhancement of Sandfish, Arctoscopus japonicus, by Artificial Reefs in the Eastern Waters of Korea", in Bortone, Stephen A.; Brandini, Frederico Pereira; Fabi, Gianna; Otake, Shinya, Artificial Reefs in Fisheries Management, CRC Press, pp. 111–124, ISBN 1439820082
  8. ↑ Fedorov, V.V., I.A. Chereshnev, M.V. Nazarkin, A.V. Shestakov and V.V. Volobuev, 2003. Catalog of marine and freswater fishes of the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. Vladivostok: Dalnauka, 2003. 204 p.
  9. ↑ 平成 24 年度ハタハタ日本海北部系群の資源評価 PDF
  10. ↑ Tomoda, Tsutomu; Hotta, Kazuo; Morioka, Taizo. "Growth, spawning and migration of hatchery-reared Japanese sandfish Arctoscopus japonicus released in Nanao Bay and Toyama Bay". Nippon Suisan Gakkaishi. 72(6): 1039–1045. doi:10.2331/suisan.72.1039. abstract
  11. ↑ Komoto, Ryota (甲本亮太); Kudo, Yuki (工藤裕紀); Takatsu, Tetsuya (髙津哲也) (2011), "Vertical distribution and feeding habits of Japanese sandfish (Arctoscopus japonicus) larvae and juveniles off Akita Prefecture in the Sea of Japan", 水産増殖 (Suisan zōshoku) 59 (4): 615–630 abstract
  12. ↑ Okiyama 1990; cited in Shibata 1993, p. 17
  13. ↑ Okiyama, M. (沖山宗雄). "ハタハタの資源生物学的研究.II系統群(予報)". 日本海区水産研究所研究報告 22: 59–69., cited by Shirai et al. 2006, p. 357
  14. ↑ Finding in Shirai et al. 2006, summarized in Shirai, Goto & Hirose 2007, p. 47 (latter is in Japanese)
  15. ↑ Shirai, Shigeru M.; Kuranaga, Ryoji; Sugiyama, Hideki; Higuchi, Masahito (2006). "Population structure of the sailfin sandfish, Arcto scopus japonicus (Trichodontidae), in the Sea of Japan". Ichthyological Research 53: 357–368. doi:10.1007/s10228-006-0356-0.
  16. 1 2 3 Shirai, S. M. (白井茂); Goto, Tomoaki (後藤友明); Hirose, Taro (廣瀬太郎) (2007). "2004年2-3月に得られた岩手沖のハタハタは日本海から来遊した". 魚類学雑誌 54 (1): 47–58.
  17. ↑ Shirai, Shigeru M. (白井滋) (2009). "ハタハタ 日本海西部系群の由来 (予報)" (PDF). Ichthyological Research. pdf (alternate site)
  18. ↑ Watanabe, Kyuji; Sakuramoto, Kazumi; Minami, Takashi; Suzuki, Naoki (2006). "Population structure of the sailfin sandfish, Arcto scopus japonicus (Trichodontidae), in the Sea of Japan" (PDF). Bull. Jpn. Soc. Fish. Oceanogr. 70 (4): 221–228.
  19. ↑ Choi et al., 1983, cited in Watanabe et al. 2006, p. 221
  20. ↑ Resources Management Division of the Fisheries Experimental Station of Kushiro (2006). "ハタハタの生き残り条件を探る" (PDF). Retrieved March 2014.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Jordan, David Starr; Evermann, Barton Warren (1902). "A Review of the Trachinoid Fishes and their Supposed Allies found in the Waters of Japan". Proceedings of the United States National Museum 24: 484. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.24-1263.461.
  22. 1 2 Shibata, Satoru (柴田理) (1993). "ハタハタとエゾハタハタの比較" (PDF). 日本海ブロック試験研究録 29: 17–21.
  23. ↑ Jordan, David Starr (1907). Fishes. Henry Holt. p. 578.
  24. 1 2 Chereshnev, I. A.; Nazarki, M. V. (2006). "On the occurrence of Japanese sandfish Arctoscopus japonicus (Trichodontidae) in the region of Tauisk Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk". Journal of Ichthyology 42: 683–686.
  25. ↑ Boulenger, G.A. (1901). "Classification of Teleostean Fishes". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Zoology, Botany, and Geology. 7 8: 269.
  26. ↑ Herald, Earl Stannard (1961). Living fishes of the world. Doubleday. p. 205.
  27. ↑ Morioka, T.(森岡泰三); Hotta, K.(堀田和夫); Tomoda, T.(友田務); Nakamura, L (中村弘二) (2005). "ハタハタArctoscopus japonicusの卵塊が多色化する要因 (A possible factor influencing the color variation in Japanese sandfish Arctoscopus japonicus egg masses)". 日本水産学会誌 (Journal of the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science 71 (2): 212–214.
  28. ↑ 水産総合研究センター (August 2001). "ハタハタのミトコンドリアＤＮＡ全塩基配列の決定と類縁関係の解明". 水産週報 (1553). Press release NDL data
  29. ↑ Okiyama, M (1990). "Contrast in Reproductive Style Between Two Species of Sandfish (Family Trichodontidae)". Fishery Bulletin 88: 543–549.
  30. ↑ 蜀山人『一話一言』巻十一大田, 南畝 (1907), 蜀山人全集 4, 吉川弘文館, p. 291「鱗の中に富士山のもやうを生じ候故、めでたき魚と祝し、文字はいつごろよりか魚篇に神と書なり、」
  31. ↑ Nihon Dōbutsu Gakkai (1897), Annotationes Zoologicæ Japonenses 1, Tokyo, p. 108
  32. ↑ Ashburne, John; Abe, Yoshi (2002). Japan. Lonely Planet. p. 51.
  33. ↑ Mozume, Takayo (物集高世); Yokoi, Tokifuyu (横井時冬), eds. (1895), "支言考", Kōten Kōkyūjo kōen (皇典講究所講演) 15 (148), 皇典講究所, p. 12
  34. ↑ 澁澤, 敬三 (1944), 日本魚名集覽　第二部, 生活社, p. 175
  35. ↑ 大田 1907, vol.4, p.291
  36. ↑ Watanabe et al. 2006, p. 221
  37. ↑ 秋田市 (Japan), ed. (2003). 秋田市史. 16(民俗編). p. 300. (Akita City's published municipal history, governmental publication)
  38. ↑ "FAO Capture Production of Arctoscopus japonicus (t) n = 2". FishBase. 2010. Retrieved April 2014.
  39. 1 2 竹内, 健 (1981), "ハタハタ", 秋田大百科事典 (encyclopedia), 秋田魁新報社, p. 660
  40. ↑ Watanabe, Kyuji; Sakuramoto, Kazumi; Sugiyama, Hideki; Suzuki, Naoki (2005). "Collapse of the Arctoscopus japonicus Catch in the Sea of Japan－Environmental Factors or Overfishing－" (PDF). Global Environmental Res 9 (2): 131–137.
  41. ↑ The fishery closure years are graphed in fig. 4, Watanabe et al. 2005
  42. ↑ "食のみやこ鳥取県/ハタハタ". 鳥取県. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
  43. ↑ "鳥取県観光案内 とっとり旅の生情報". 社団法人 鳥取県観光連盟. Retrieved 2013-02-26.
  44. ↑ "漁協のページ ()". Akita Prefecture Fisherise Cooperative Association. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  45. ↑ "Ajigaswaa police station". Aomori Prefectural Police. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  46. 1 2 "ハタハタのブリコ密漁防ごう　鯵ケ沢漁協など呼び掛け". [[:ja:陸奥新報|]] (Mutsu Shimpō) ([[:ja:陸奥新報社|]]). 2008-11-28. Archived from the original on 22 Mar 2010. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
  47. ↑ "青森県水産情報（遊漁を楽しむ皆様へ＞ハタハタ遊漁者の皆さんへ）". 青森県. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  48. ↑ "はたはた遊漁者のみなさまへ". 秋田県. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  49. ↑ "ハタハタの採捕方法規制" (PDF). 山形県. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  50. ↑ Kellner, O. (1889). "Researches on Composition of several Japanese Fertilizers". Bulletin of the Imperial Colledge of Agriculture (4): 6.
  51. 1 2 "めいぶつ秋田県". 日本語ジャーナル: 40. 2007-11-15.
  52. ↑ "ハタハタの干物の市場規模を知りたい". 2011-04-20. Retrieved April 2013. (FAQ published by Tottori Prefecture Library. Questioner sought market size of hatahata himono. No exact statistice was available, but the answerer quoted Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications's household budge survey that in 2006 the average household spent 15,835 yen, and that for fish in general, dried fish accouted for 59.3% of consumption.
  53. ↑ "ハタハタみりん干について". 兵庫県立水産試験場事業報告 (Bulletin of the Hyogo Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station): 133–136. 1965.
  54. ↑ 成瀬, 宇平 (2011), 47都道府県・魚食文化百科, 丸善出版, pp. 183, 275
  55. ↑ 日本の食生活全集鳥取編集委員会編、『日本の食生活全集31　聞き書鳥取の食事』p24、p56、1991年、東京、社団法人農山漁村文化協会、ISBN 4-540-91003-5
  56. ↑ 成瀬 2011, p. 79
  57. ↑ "못생겨도 맛은 일품! <도루묵 요리> (Looks awful but tastes great" dorumuk cooking)" (in Korean). MBC Cultural Broadcasting. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
  58. ↑ 富木, 隆蔵 (1981), "ブリコ", 秋田大百科事典 (encyclopedia), 秋田魁新報社, p. 714

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