#613-617 Japenese Seafood

 

Fun Fact #613

Just Keep Swimming

    When it comes to tuna, some people find it a little fishy. Not only is there the taste and smell to deal with, but also the price can seem a little unbalanced. Why does Tuna Fillet sometimes cost 100s of dollars but canned tuna is so cheap? 

    The answer lies with the different varieties available, as Bluefin tuna is massive and lives an average of 20 years. Its slow growth rate allows it to better lock away histamine, reducing its fishy smell drastically and a more tender fish. Skipjack however skips right into the process with only a 7 year lifespan meaning it spawns in larger numbers (shoals of up to 50,000 individuals) making sustainable fishing much easier to achieve. Yet its short life span does not allow it to properly integrate histamine making it smell much worse. 

    As for why Tuna is as popular as it is, the answer is in a couple of factors. Chief among them is it was already deeply engrained in Pacific cultures from Hawaii (Aku) to Japan (Katsuo) allowing it to be grandfathered into modern markets relatively easily. Additionally Skipjack in particular has the highest percentage of Skeletal Muscle in the entire animal kingdom sitting around 68%. This is because they lack a Fish bladder so they either have to keep swimming, or start sinking. This high Muscle volume and low fat content makes them ideal for taste, and is a trait shared by all Tuna –including Bluefin– Just to a lesser extent than Skipjack.

Katsuo Fish with Cherry Buds, print by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1830s 

As you may be able to guess here soon, I was hungry when I wrote this week's Fun Facts and it altered my focus. I realized this upon review but thought it was kind of funny and still interesting so please let me know what you think. As always thanks for reading and please have a wonderful day!

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Fun Fact #614 “The Fins”!!

When most people talk about Alien invasions they tend to expect them to come from the sky, but make no mistake under the water there is an invasion all its own which is destroying ecosystems across the world.  The culprit goes by the name “Lionfish”

     “Pterois” (“The Fins”) better known as Lionfish is a member of the Scorpeanidaie family from the Pacific whose bright coloration has made them a popular aquarium fish since the early 1980s. That bright coloring is not just for show however, as they rank a solid grade 1 on the Envenomation Scale making them by far the least venomous of all the Scorpeanidaie family, but still painful with bruising, redness in skin, and swelling (for reference Grade 3 “grants” Necrosis of the Limbs). Thanks to this Venom many owners have illegally released their fish over the years after getting stung. Once released they have spread across ecosystems they were never meant for in the Atlantic, and Mediterranean leaving a trail of Terrorized fish in their wake. 

To better cope with this issue some of the affected places such as The Bahammas, and certain regions in The US actually allow hunting year around with no catch limit, resulting in a cheap yet exotic fish for residents and tourists to enjoy. This has seen some success with a majority of diving tours of coral reefs in The Bahamas now giving tourists Fish spears to kill any Lionfish they encounter during the tour to be prepared by staff for them upon their return to the Cruise ship. Suffice to say arming random people with spears has resulted in some. .. “enthusiastic” accidents particularly among quarreling couples, but the practice remains largely popular. In case you were wondering, Lionfish are a whitefish which share many of the same proteins as fish in the Cichlidae family resulting in Lionfish tasting eerily similar to Talpia. If you are looking for Lionfish on a menu however, it's often sold as sashimi under the Japanese name “Gashira” or in Sushi rolls called “Dragon’s Beard”. In Europe they are referred to as “Turkey Fish” thanks to their fins. 

Lastly there is some evidence to show that Ecosystems have begun their own campaign against this invasion with Groupers, Moray Eels, Bobbitt Worms, Barracuda, Snappers,  and Cornet fish populations across the US Coast starting to eat Lionfish at all stages. This is likely because these creatures all have an astonishing resistance to Lionfish venom, even though they have run into it before. Sadly the only creature that has been known to eat them but is too often scared to are Sharks, as they refuse to eat live Lionfish, but have been known to guide divers In the Bahamas to the Lionfish so the Tourists can kill the lionfish, leaving an easy meal for the sharks. 

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Fun Fact #615 Gentle Giants

    Someday, if you were to go diving in Tokyo bay, you might encounter a crustacean which would look at home in the NBA. While it is the largest arthropod in the world, this isn't Gozilla’s crazy uncle but instead The Japanese Giant Spider crab.

    Despite their 12 foot legspan, Macrocheira kaempferi (The Japanese Giant Spider Crab) -or Keampferi for short- are surprisingly one of the most docile crabs in the world, and known for forming “Collections” of sea creatures on their shells. This collection is specially crafted by the shell, not to blend in for hunting since they hunt at night, but more to avoid predators during the day. As such they don't select for color (so they’re not artists, just … Hoarders?). In recent years however these Giant Collectors have been experiencing decline due to fishing for delicacies, resulting in the average legspan in 2024 of 4 feet instead of the historic 12 foot average of the 90s. 

    Their price in markets can be rather high compared to other crabs like the King Crabs as they have the nasty habit of removing the fingers of those fishing them despite safety guards being set in place. This is because they have very fast moving claws with a deadly strong grab when needed.

    Thankfully there are efforts to reestablish sustainable hunting, by limiting the season to only when the Crabs are known to be in deep ocean waters, and by housing nurseries all across Japan. Lastly there are “Seed Populations” in places across the globe which house breeding Kaempferi so when they spawn, their Zooplankton children can be (mostly) collected and sent to nurseries back in Japan to boost local populations or supplement demand for the crabs year-round. One such place which has a breeding set of Kaempferi is The Shed Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois which can be witnessed in their Ocean’s Gallery. 

(Photo of the Shedd’s Japanese Giant Spider Crab, by Grace McQueeny)

Thank you for reading, I hope you have enjoyed it. Special Thanks to the Shed Aquarium who sent me the details on Japanese Giant Spider Crabs, they really are cool and if you’re in the area you should check them out. A good opportunity might be at their upcoming Haunted House Party inside the Aquarium areas this coming October 31st (6pm-10pm) which would be a time when the Spider Crabs are most likely to be active. WIth that thank you and please have a wonderful day. 

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Fun Fact #616

Armed for something extra.

When it comes to choosing what to make fun facts on I tend to prefer picking those topics that can stand up for themselves with multiple independent studies having been conducted. Yet today’s creature lacks a backbone so badly that it wasn’t proven to be a different species until 2017 (Theorized by French Naturalists to be separate since 1834, but it took until 2017 for a specimen to be scientifically examined) That’s right, today’s animal is The Octopus Sinensis.

Alright, maybe I was a little harsh since all octopuses lack bones. Senensis is very closely related to The Mediterranean and Atlantic Octopus Vulgaris. Senesis inhabits a different region of the world being found around Korea and Japan giving rise to its Latin name “Sinensis” meaning “Chinese”. The only visible difference and what alerted confused fishers to something fishy going on,  is that Senesis is unique among Octopi by devoting one of its limbs to reproductive organs instead of using it for hunting. This results in Senensis having a shorter 3rd right arm, with 80 less suckers, but a much faster reproductive cycle. They also seem to have a shorter lifespan than average Octopi (2 years) but it's not clear how short their lifespan is due to a lack of clear research. In fact much of the Senensis and Vulgaris research prior to 2017 is mixed up with no hope of resolution 

Its actually the misidentification of Senesis as Vulgaris which masked Global octopi Numbers until the truth came out causing a  market crash for Octopi Fisheries between late 2017 and 2020 while the issue was sorted out. Thanks to Senensis’ high reproductive rate and fast growth into adulthood, there have been an increasing number of Aquacultural Farms to raise shoals of Sinensis for market to serve demand in recent years. The meat is generally sold under the Japanese name TakoYaki and is said to be sweeter than most other Octopi. Better yet the enclosures can be made cheaper since the short Lifespan of Senensis has led to them being far worse at logic puzzles and problem solving, further reducing cost on this creature. 

A Senensis Octopus peeking out of an Octopus Pot (Aquarium environment). 

As always thanks for reading and please have a wonderful day!

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Fun Fact #617

How to Eat Immortals

    The Ocean is an amazing place filled with some rather odd animals like Coral, Turtles, Sharks and… Hmm? Oh Yes Coral are animals in the same way that Jellyfish are animals. Both Jellies and Corals belong to the phylum Cnidaria starting their lives as Zooplankton looking to attach to solid places. Once a suitable location has been found they then grow into Polyps to filter-feed other zooplankton –including their own species. 

The difference is Jellyfish have a further stage called “Medusa” where they can “hunt” and drift far away being carried by currents. Then they reproduce every so often or if injured, sick, or starving they can revert to a Polyp to filter feed and send clones of themselves off into the world through a process called “Strobilation (Jellyfish Fission)”. This Reverting to polyp also makes Jellyfish Functionally Immortal so long as they aren’t eaten.

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        So, I asked my Little Brother Bob what he thought Jellyfish tasted like and his answer was “Painful” Yet as beautifully simple as this answer was, someone in Japan must have thought otherwise, because the dish “Kurage” is a popular delicacy over there where they remove the tentacles of certain jellyfish, and dry them out for use on cold foods. Sadly no spreadable Jellies or Jams exist for Jellyfish. This is likely because they are known to be nearly tasteless. However they are loved for their ability to adopt surrounding flavors while remaining crunchy like croutons making them a good protein filler for salads. Surprisingly it’s even sold in 49 US States as “Jellyballs” being made from Bell Jellyfish, and table salt.  Jellyfish have a relatively short season however at just 2 months of the year when the most Bell Jelly species are in their Medusa Stage. As for being Banned in California, it's surprisingly not because of the mild venom the jellies have before being processed. Instead its for the unusually high Aluminum content Jellyfish contain which is considered a carcinogen by California.