Angling for Tuna in Japan

Tuna is a very popular fish in Japan, not only for eating, but also for angling. It is much more accessible than one thinks.

Around Japan, one can catch Kuro-maguro (Pacific bluefin tuna) and Binnaga-maguro (Albacore or longfin tuna.) As for its size, Kuro-maguro is the trophy for anglers.

Species

There are two species of tunas under the Japanese word, Kuro-maguro, in the marketplace. One is Pacific bluefin tuna, which you can catch in Japan, and another is Atlantic bluefin tuna.

These two share many common traits. And they were categorized under the same species, in the past. But now these two species are labeled separately. 

It is said that Atlantic bluefin tuna grows bigger than Kuro-maguro, Pacific bluefin tuna. There is a difference in shape. Pacific one has more torpedo shape, and Atlantic one has more round shape, on the contrary. 

Kuro-maguro grows up to 3 m. The biggest Kuro-maguro caught in Japan was 288 cm, 483 kg. It was caught by a commercial angler in Tanega-shima (Near the western island, Kyushu,) in 1986. The biggest tuna landed by an angler was 268.5 cm, 348 kg, in Okinawa, in 2003. This was recorded by JGFA (Japan Game Fishing Association). The JGFA web page is here.

Tuna can swim very fast. It is said that it can swim at a speed of  75 km/h. What allows them to swim so fast are their shape, skin and depressible fins, to make the water resistance minimum. It is impressive to see their fins neatly sit in the groove on their body. With their ability to swim, they migrate the ocean. It spawns in the Philippine Sea and Sea of Japan and some goes up north with the warm current (Japan Current, Kuroshio). They even reach even to the west coast of the U.S.. Then, for the spawning, they are coming back to the place where they have been born. 

It means that you can find tuna all around Japan, where the Kuroshio current flows close to the shore.  

Angling styles

The most popular style of angling for tuna is using chumming from a boat.

In this image, the red cage holds the chumming, of krill or made from minced fish. At the target depth, anglers jerk the rod to spread the chumming. For bait, krill is often used. Rod is 1.8 m or 2.4 m of one piece. The recommended action is 7:3 to 6:4, that is stiff enough to give proper jerking power and cushioning enough to save the line. Rod material is often grass, for its parabolic characteristics. The cage is weighted and it is about 300 g. Hook leader is 0.50 mm to 0.70mm of fluorocarbon. Hook is the one designed to hold the krill bait properly. 

Next one is Japanese traditional lure fishing, called Kattakuri method.

Basic concept is the same as the above style. It uses chumming to attract fish, but with traditional lure. Rod is shorter and more fast action to make good action to the lure. It is often done with a handline. Giving action with a hand can be done more directly than with a rod.

It has the kind of jig head we call Bake (pronounced ba-ke, not the same as “to bake”.) It has the lead casted hook, with the fish skin attached. 

Another popular way is the drafting of live bait, Oyogase method.

You hook live bait such as mackerel or jack mackerel, to let it run freely. Rod is about 2 m, often made specially for this style of fishing. Action is parabolic but strong enough to fight against tuna. Main line is 1.00 mm to 1.10 mm. Hook leader is fluorocarbon 1.20 mm. We have a special hook shape for this live bait fishing. They are circled and lighter weight. 

From this video, you can check the actual fishing with this bait runner rig.

Angling with lures for tuna is also very popular. The basic methods are the same as globally enjoyed styles; trolling, casting, and jigging. It is notable that tuna of 236 cm, 187 kg was caught by casting, in 2009. It was with a spinning tackle.

History of the relationships between tuna and Japanese people

The record tells us that Japanese people have a long relationship with tuna. 

The ruins of the Jomon-period (14,000 - 300 BC) showed that some remains around houses had tuna bones, in the Sannai Maruyama site. It shows that people in the period were eating tuna. People in that era were fishers, as well as hunter-gatherers. It might be the case that they caught tuna with a hook and line, but it was more likely that it was speared. 

And the oldest writings, Kojiki, and the oldest poem collection, Manyoshu, mentioned tuna. In Kojiki, the word Shibi, was used to describe tuna and similar large fish (it included sailfish and billfish, and large mackerels.)  In Manyoshu, one poet mentioned fishing for tuna along the coast of the Akashi area (No. 938, Book no. 6), and in different poems, there was a description that tuna fishing was done with the fire (No. 4218, Book no. 19). Tuna fishing was done at night. 

In the times before the Edo period, tuna was not a very popular fish. Main reason for that is the lack of proper transportation and character of the meat. Since there was no quick transportation, fish as food was brought to the city after they had been seasoned or dried. The taste of dried tuna was not good, and it was not people’s favorite fish. And another reason that tuna was not well accepted was that the name Shibi’s pronunciation is the same as other words for “the date to die.” Many people who lived life-or-death situations, warriors with swords on his belt, dislike the name because it might bring bad luck.  Many warriors were holding powers culturally and politically, and tuna did not appear in the fish market.

The turning point came in the Edo period, where two big factors coincided. One thing was the invention and spread of soy sauce, and another was the change of normal people’s life. Shoyu (soy sauce) was mass-produced in Noda, Chiba prefecture, in 1558. It was widely marketed in 1660’s in the city of Edo (current Tokyo central).  Then the sauce met the tuna, which was coming from the port of Choshi, Chiba prefecture. The tuna meat was seasoned with Shoyu, and became zuke sashimi. This seasoned tuna has been one of the popular ways to eat tuna in Japan since then. Because it is seasoned, it can be transported safely into the Edo area, with the taste of the fish kept well at the same time. And another point of change was among people. In this period, more people could live peaceful lives than in the previous era of wars. People are not so sensitive about life-or-death situations, and it might be easy to forget words about bad luck. Additionally, the spread of information was much quicker among civilians who lived in high population density. These points made the marketing of tuna much easier, with a new name. The name was not Shibi anymore, and it became Maguro. The word “Maguro” is derived from the word me-guro (black eyed). 

Maguro carried in Edo. Image from this site.

Then, it opened the door for the culture of tuna eating. During the Edo period, the culture of modern sushi was established. And its popularity has been continuing until today.

Note for Pacific bluefin tuna as endangered species

We admit that the consumption is so high that our preference of this fish pushes the fish on the verge of extinction. We must think about the solution to conserve the species. This is the fact. We have to obey the regulations to keep Pacific bluefin tuna for the future.

Along the course, we have to understand that the drive of this conservation is to keep the diversity. And from this point of view, I consider keeping our culture alive within ourselves is important to keep cultural diversity and here is the significance of my article for this endangered species. This is a great challenge to catch tuna, anywhere in the world. What is important is to obey rules to keep this species forever, to keep the biological diversity, with respecting the cultural diversities at the same time.

Of the total consumption of it in the world, 80% is Japanese’. However, we have the cutting edge technology to farm tuna. You may be interested about this farming, when you read it for your reference; Fish farm in Nagasaki, Article of Kindai University Aquaculture Research Institute