Off our coast, fish are jumping, and inland, the sweet corn is high. Even the pears are falling, just as our peaches turn rosy. But there’s nothing comparable to the exciting fishing that’s occurring on our local tuna grounds right now.
Catches of lots of huge bluefin tuna have been one of the highlights of 2020 outdoors. On the tuna grounds, balloons used just like bobbers to fish live mackerel or menhaden are colorfully marking the surface. My son, Capt. Matt Blazis, just brought in an 80-inch tuna — while two 10-foot blue sharks snuck in to take other live tuna baits. Both heavy sharks snapped the lines right at the boat, but provided much additional excitement.
If you dream about going on a tuna charter, there’s no better time for exciting big game fish action than right now — especially considering the uncertainties of September’s hurricane season and the rough seas it can bring.
Commercially, tuna have historically equated to big money. Locally, fresh, top quality bluefin can cost anywhere from $20 to $40 per pound at fine fish markets. The same quality cuts will cost about $200 apound in Japan. And if you want the fatty sashimi top-quality otoro from the tuna’s belly, you could be talking $150a pound. In the finest Japanese restaurants, one little piece of the fattiest, saturated-in-Omega-3-fatty-acids otoro sashimi costs about $80.
Back in January, 2019, the first fish bought at the first auction of the year in Japan resulted in crazily excited, media-covered buyers paying $3 million for an especially fatty, intensely marbled 612-pound bluefin. That’s over $5,000 per pound.
On Jan. 5, 2020, the top fish at the first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Toyosu Market — the replacement for the famous, recently demolished Tsukiji Market — sold for $1.8 million. The excessive price — the second highest ever — is not reflective of proportionately higher quality. But it’s readily paid as an advertising investment by top, competing seafood restaurants wanting international media coverage, which can mean priceless public relations and supreme prestige, domestically and internationally. There’s always a surge in business for whichever sushi/sashimi restaurant chain wins the bidding. That victory carries over for years in establishing reputations.
These best fish, though, possess a perfect balance of flavors and have the buttery fat that gives them the fish equivalent of the finest prime beef cuts. It can even be aged like prime beef. Those fervently sought cuts are nothing like what we find in a can of tuna.
The latter come from an entirely different, much-smaller species, called albacore, which is far less fatty, juicy, and sweet. There’s only one species of tuna in the world that grows to be gigantic in size and flavor — the bluefin.
The Japanese demand for the fattiest tuna leads them to search the world. The very best tuna are swimming from here to the Maritimes right now.
Typically, during winter, though, the fattiest, most-sough-after fish are coincidentally off Japan — particularly in the Tsugaru Straight between Honshu and Hokkaido in the Oma region. During that period, Oma tuna shipped to Boston or New York for gourmet needs can cost $400 per pound wholesale. But right now, by far, the best, fattiest, most valuable bluefin tuna are found off our cold-water, food-rich shores in the heat of summer.
Here, they fatten unlimitedly — often in the presence of feasting whales — on oily baitfish like mackerel and menhaden — and even bluefish. They’re so much more prized than the bluefin tuna that first arrive in our waters, skinny and empty-bellied, from the pristine-clear but nutrition-deficient Gulf of Mexico.
Once at the market, the torpedo-shaped bluefin eventually gets split into four quarters. Its two red belly sections with many contrasting, thin bands of light fat — similar to a tree trunk — are the most prized for otoro. Next in value are the chutoro — the cuts that have a mixture of meat and fat. The least expensive part of the great fish found towards the backbone is akami, the lean, all-red, meat part.
While bluefin can’t breed in captivity, there’s so much money in them that farmers are raising them by feeding small ones vast quantities of sardines, which soon give their prized fat an easily recognized, though less desirable flavor. Wild bluefin is so easily distinguishable by its much sweeter and milder flavor.
Surprisingly, the United States is 11th in tuna harvesting. At the top, in order, are Spain, Malta. France, Italy, Croatia, Japan, Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Libya, then the United States. We take about a fifth of what Spain harvests.
As for fishermen’s rewards for tuna? This year, at Tokyo’s other two seafood auction markets, Ota and Adachi, high-bid prices for bluefin were a more realistic $30 per pound. As we’re seeing this year, excellent regulations have helped bring back tuna numbers. As more bluefin are being brought to market, the interactions of supply and demand will lower prices and decrease the paychecks for our fishermen. We saw the decline last year here.
The 2019 market opened with record low rewards. Most fishermen got just $4 per pound. The year before, fishermen got $7 a pound. The world economy’s freefall is reflected in the bluefin tuna prices of the 1980s, which commonly were around or above $15 per pound. Worcester’s Capt. Mike Wisniewski remembers getting up to $21 a pound. then from the Japanese and bringing home a $9,000 paycheck for two fish and one day’s fishing.
Back in those days, Japanese buyers were waiting at the dock for bluefin catches. Skyrocketing demand resulted in overfishing thanks to damaging quotas and unsustainable fishing methods. The return of our tuna fishery after that collapse is a miracle we can thank marine scientists for. But prices have not rebounded. According to Capt. Wisniewski, the television show, Wicked Tuna, ruined the rewards for tuna fishermen up and down the Atlantic Coast.
“Before the show, there weren’t many tuna fishermen out there. Supply couldn’t match demand. An American couldn’t buy a bluefin. They were all being shipped abroad. The year after the show went on the air, so many additional fishermen got into the game thinking they could get rich fast. Supply matched — and exceeded demand — and fishermen’s prices plunged. There are so many tuna fishermen out there now. And conditions are so good that your grandmother could catch one.”
According to Capt. Wayne Bergeron, fishermen are getting $4 to $8 per pound. depending on fat content. You can bet, though, that retail market prices will always be a lot higher than what fishermen are paid.”
—Contact Mark Blazis at markblazissafaris@gmail.com.
The Link LonkAugust 14, 2020 at 03:37AM
https://ift.tt/2E3CCiI
Outdoors: Tuna harvest is now at its height - Worcester Telegram
https://ift.tt/2NKNaVQ
Tuna
No comments:
Post a Comment