Climate change creates mutant fugu, Japan's beloved poisonous fish

Record ID: 1367578

  • Title: Climate change creates mutant fugu, Japan's beloved poisonous fish
  • Date: 10th December 2018
  • Summary: SHIMONOSEKI, JAPAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PUFFERFISH AUCTIONEER SHOUTING AND EXCHANGING BIDDING INFORMATION WITH BUYERS THROUGH HAND SIGNALS UNDER BLACK PLASTIC BAG AUCTIONEER PUTTING TAG ON SOLD PUFFERFISH PUFFERFISH VARIOUS OF AUCTIONEERS PUTTING PUFFERFISH INTO BOXES PORT OF SHIMONOSEKI SHIP AT PORT VARIOUS OF ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT THE NATIONAL FISHERIES UNIVERSITY, HIROSHI TAKAHASHI, SHOWING HYBRID PUFFERFISH VARIOUS OF TAKAHASHI'S STAFF ANATOMISING HYBRID PUFFERFISH (SOUNDBITE)(Japanese) ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT THE NATIONAL FISHERIES UNIVERSITY, HIROSHI TAKAHASHI, SAYING: "(Due to the climate change,) the stictonotus, which usually swim around the Sea of Japan, escaped their gradually warming habitat and crossed the Tsushima strait to emerge in the Pacific Ocean. There, they inter-bred with their sibling species that triggered an increase in the number of hybrid fish." HYBRID PUFFERFISH (SOUNDBITE)(Japanese) ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT THE NATIONAL FISHERIES UNIVERSITY, HIROSHI TAKAHASHI, SAYING: "The biggest problem for the fishing industry is that they need to discard such hybrids that fisherman caught following the government's rule. In Shimonoseki, for example, damage is very serious as they need to discard all hybrids." ISUMI CITY, JAPAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) PUFFERFISH FISHING SHIP RETURNING FROM FISHING VARIOUS OF PUFFERFISH IN BUCKETS FISHERMEN LOOKING AT PUFFERFISH THEY CAUGHT PUFFER FISH IN BUCKET VARIOUS OF PUFFERFISH SHIP OWNER REMOVING LIVER AND OTHER ORGANS THAT CONTAIN TETRODOTOXIN AND CHUCKING EDIBLE PART OF PUFFERFISH EDIBLE PART OF PUFFERFISH IN BUCKET PUFFER FISH FISHING SHIP OWNER CHOPPING HEAD OF PUFFERFISH VARIOUS OF PUFFER FISH SHIP OWNER WASHING EDIBLE PART OF PUFFERFISH (SOUNDBITE)(Japanese) 71 YEAR-OLD HOBBY PUFFERFISH FISHERMAN, HITOSHI MIZUI, SAYING: "It's just delicious. I don't know if people from overseas would understand, but I think most Japanese people like eating pufferfish." VARIOUS OF PORT IN ISUMI CITY PUFFERFISH FISHING BOAT, SHIKISHIMA-MARU, AT THE PORT SIGN ON THE BOAT READING (English); "SHIKISHIMA" SHIMONOSEKI, JAPAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PUFFERFISH BEING PROCESSED
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2018 14:07
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SHIMONOSEKI AND ISUMI CITY, JAPAN
  • City: SHIMONOSEKI AND ISUMI CITY, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVA0019AD6ZX7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: At a pre-dawn auction in a port city in southwestern Japan, buyers step towards an auctioneer, whose arm is covered to the elbow by a black nylon bag, and grip the man's hand one by one to make their bids by tapping him in the case so that only he knows their price.
    Its furtive bidding a relic of a time when fish traders wore kimonos whose sleeves obscured their hands as they secretly signaled their bids, is part of the strange, insular world of Japanese pufferfish, or fugu, a fish best known for its ability to kill a person in as little as 20 minutes.
    Although deaths are extremely rare, the whiff of danger associated with the fish's poison is a significant element of the delicacy's enduring allure in Japanese culture. A kilogram fetches as much as 30,000 yen, or $226, at the market here, and in the December holiday season, when fugu is particularly popular, a luxury fishmonger in Tokyo can sell up to $88,000 worth of the fish on any given day.
    And now, climate change is adding a new element of risk: Fishermen are discovering an unprecedented number of hybrid species in their catch as seas surrounding the archipelago - particularly off the northeastern coast - see some of the fastest rates of warming in the world.
    Hiroshi Takahashi, an associate professor at the National Fisheries University, first noticed the increase in hybrid pufferfish six years ago. He started receiving calls from a scientific facility on Japan's northeastern coast of the main island of Honshu that had buckets of pufferfish they couldn't identify. In the fall of 2012, nearly 40 percent pufferfish caught in the area were unidentifiable, compared to less than 1 percent studied previously.
    With pufferfish heading north to seek cooler waters, sibling species of the fish have begun to inter-breed, triggering a sudden increase in the number of hybrid fish. Hybrids are no more dangerous than your average lethal pufferfish. The problem is that the hybrids can be hard to distinguish from harmless breeds, or from toxic types that require different handling. So, Japan prohibits their sale and distribution. With the rise of these unclassifiable hybrids, fishermen and fish traders are having to discard a sizable share of their catch.
    "The biggest problem for the fishing industry is that they need to discard such hybrids that fisherman caught following the government's rule. In Shimonoseki, for example, damage is very serious as they need to discard all hybrids," Takahashi said.
    A rapid increase of the hybrids also had an impatc on hobby fishermen, like those who throng a deserted dock in the Ohara port, a two-hour drive from Tokyo, to get a chance to catch the creature. They return on the Shikishima-maru around noon, sunburnt and tipsy, carrying white buckets filled with pufferfish.
    A 71-year-old hobby fisherman Hitoshi Mizui said they have seen more hybrids recently. He added that he likes pufferfish simply becasue they are tasty.
    The Japanese have eaten the fish for thousands of years. After it was outlawed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a samurai general who unified Japan in the 16th century, peasants continued to eat it in secret and died in droves. The ban on fugu was finally lifted after World War II following years of petitioning by avid fans.
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