Japanese sandfish

TheJapanese sandfish(Arctoscopus japonicus), also known as thesailfin sandfish, is a species of fish of thePercomorpha(perch-like)cladein theorderTrachiniformes, being one of the two genera in thefamilyTrichodontidae, the sandfishes. Known in Japan ashatahata(ハタハタ, 鰰, 鱩, 燭魚), it is a commercially important fish especially forAkitaandYamagataprefectures.Its habitat occurs in sandy-mudbottomsranging from theSea of Japanto theOkhotsk Sea.
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.The fish, which is scaleless, may be prepared whole as braised or grilled fish, and has a mucilaginous consistency.It is also dried to makestockfish; salted, dried, and made intohimono; and cured inmisoasmisozuke. It is the main ingredient of thefish saucecalledshottsuru.The egg masses are known asburikko.InKoreanthe fish is called 도루묵dorumuk.
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.
TheJapanese sandfishhas a life span of 5 years,attaining a typicalfork lengthof 20 centimetres (7.9 in).It is adeep sea fishthat usually inhabits sandy and muddy sea floors in waters 200 to 400 metres (660 to 1,310 ft) (550 metres (1,800 ft)) deep, but migrates from November to January to spawn in shallow rocky beds of seaweed.The males reach sexual maturity at1+1⁄2years 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.
It preys and feeds onamphipods,copepods,mysidacea, krill, squid, and fish.
TheJapanese sandfishis distributed in the northwesternPacific Ocean, particularly theSea of Japanto theOkhotsk Sea,Kurile IslandsandKamchatka Peninsula.
Three broad regional population groups had been postulated by Okiyama (1970) based on tagging,and latermitochondrial DNAanalysis confirmed these grouping on a genetic basis.The population groups are:
Catch production in theTōhoku region(Northeastern Japan)'s Pacific coast (otherwise known as "Sanriku") is modest, and no regular spawning grounds have been confirmed.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.
TheJapanese sandfishis silvery underneath, and light brown above with dark brown streaks flecked with spots.Tall body depth, though not as tall as the Pacific sandfish (Trichodon trichodon).Head and trunk are scaleless.
A large mouth, oblique and turned upwards, is lined with rows of fine teeth.The gill-flap on the cheek (preopercle) each has five sharp spines.It has a first dorsal and a second dorsal fin that are separated by a gap.Thepectoral finsare particularly large.The fish lacks anair-bladder.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.
The egg mass (roe) is usually green, but may also have yellow, red, or brown coloration. Pigment components present in the eggs includebilinandcarotenoidssuch as idoxanthin, crustaxanthin, and vitamin A2aldehyde(3-dehydroretinal). The bilin andretinalproduces 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 theamphipods) 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 asastaxanthinthat 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.
TheJapanese sandfishwas classified under thePerciformes(perch-likes) order,Trachinoideisuborder, andTrichodontidae(sandfishes) family. However,mitochondrial DNAanalysis indicates that the Trichodontidae is classified within thesuborderCottoideiof theScorpaeniformesorder.
The Japanese namehatahatamay be written as鰰, which consists of the fish radical魚combined with the characterkami(神) "god". Shokusanjin (Ōta Nanpo) records the lore that it came to be written this way "because within its scales arises the pattern ofMount Fuji, and was celebrated as auspicious fish," though the actual species has no scales.
An alternate Japanese name iskaminari-uwo(雷魚) "thunder fish", which derives from their spawning (and catching) season coinciding with the months when thunderstorms become frequent.In fact,hatahatais an oldonomatopoeiarepresenting the sound of the thunderclap, whose use is attested in the 10th centuryKagerō Nikki, and which is the root of the verbhatata-ku"to thunder."
In theAkita dialect[ja],hatahatasounds likehadahadato non-natives, because the "ta" is locally pronounced invoiced unaspirateddakuon[ja], so thathadahadais sometimes listed as a local name for the fish.In Akita, the fish sometimes bears the name "satake uo" after theSatake clanwho were rules of the land around 1600. But the Satakes were originally rooted inHitachi Province(present-dayIbaraki Prefecture), and legend has it that the fish followed the masters from the old country (Shokusanjin notes that the legend is given in theAkita Suginaoshi monogatari(秋田杉直物語)).InTottori Prefecturethe fish is calledshirohataorkitaha.
The species is caught bybottom trawlingoffshore and byset-netting[ja]andgillnettingthe coastal spawning waters.The fish stock down further south are caught byDanish seine fishing.
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 asnukazuketo be consumed as aproteinsource over the winter.
FAOStatistics record that in 1950, the annual catch was 10,000 tonnes (9,800 long tons; 11,000 short 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 tonnes (55,800 long tons; 62,500 short 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 tonnes (11,364 long tons; 12,727 short tons).
In Akita Prefecture, peak catch volume reached 15,000 tonnes (15,000 long tons; 17,000 short tons) per year,but overfishing, possibly with an interplay of water temperature "regime" shifts, led to persisting depletion of stock,so that the fishermen of Akita Prefecture, led by itsFisheries Cooperative Association[ja]self-imposed a total moratorium on the catch from 1992 to 1995In 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.In Korea, the catch was 25,000 tonnes (25,000 long tons; 28,000 short tons) per year in 1971, but suffered a similar decline to 4,000 tonnes (3,900 long tons; 4,400 short tons) by 2008, and that country has also instituted conservation measures.
Tottori prefectureis 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 bybottom 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.
At one time, dried hatahata was one type of fish-based fertilizer (fish manure) being trafficked in Japan.
The fish lacksscale, 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.
Freshhatahatacan be served salted and broiled, or be poached in a pot flavored withsoy sauce,sake kasu, and especiallyshottsuru. In Akita, the pot dish would be flavored withshottsuru, a fish sauce traditionally made by curing the fish in brine.
Another preparation is thedengaku[ja](slathered with sweet miso paste and broiled),which is eaten not only in Akita but also in theShōnai region[ja]aroundSakata, Yamagata.
The fish is preserved in various ways, such asnukazuke(pickled in rice bran and salt),himono(as dried fish),asmirinboshi[ja], (mirin-based flavored dried fish).It is also made into a preservednarezushi; in Akita the preserving medium consists of rice and koji (Aspergillus oryzaemold for brewingsake)but inTottori Prefecturethehatahata narezushiis known locally asshirohatazushi[ja]and usesokara(soy pulp).
Freshhatahatais suitable formizuni[ja]or poaching or simmering in water (the dish inYamagatais calledyu-age), and eaten with soy sauce. It can be made intohatahata-jiru(miso soup), but themisoshould be dissolved in the broth before the fish is plunged, otherwise the fish falls apart.
InSouth Korea, the fish (known there asdorumuk(Korean:도루묵)) is eaten in communities inGangwon Provinceand elsewhere along theSea of Japan. In Korea it is mainly an ingredient forjjigaehot pot dishes, but sometimes the roe-laden females are grilled and eaten.
Locally, afish saucecalledshottsuruis made from this fish. The sauce which literally means "salty juice",is made by pickling and fermenting the salted fish, and straining out the debris. The fish sauce is used to flavor theshottsuru nabe, or pot dish that uses this flavoring to cook thehatahatawith vegetable and other ingredients.In the Akita dialect, the pot dish also sometimes calledshottsuru kayaki, with "kayaki[ja]" being the local term fornabeorhot potdish.
In theAkita dialect[ja], the roe of this species is calledburiko.The fish is caught during its spawning season, when many of the females are loaded with eggs 2–3 millimetres (0.079–0.118 in) in diameter. The eggs are surrounded by slimymucus.
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 likeburi buriwhich resulted in its name.
The Japanesefolk balladknown asAkita Ondomentions the "Ogaburiko" in the lyrics, which is a reference to the roe clusters.