Sun, May 11, 2003 page17

• Catching the `Porsche of the seas'

  Tungkang is the bluefin tuna capital of the world and now, as the Pingtung Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival gets underway, is the time to visit

  • By Derek Lee / STAFF REPORTER
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  Forget SARS. It's tuna season in Tungkang (東港), a fishing town perched on the mid-western corner of Pingtung County (屏東縣), which has an international reputation for its deep-sea bluefin tuna catch and booming restaurant business.

  Far away from fears of severe acute respiratory syndrome, this southernmost county is holding the "Pingtung Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival 2003" -- starting yesterday through to June 29 -- in the hope of enticing gourmands and tourists to sample the magnificent fish, which can grow up to 4m in length and weigh up to 500kg.

  

  A large bluefin tuna is admired after being landed in Tungkang, Pingtung County, last week.

  PHOTO COURTESY PINGTUNG COUNTY GOVERNMENT

  In terms of bluefin tuna catching, Taiwan leads the world and this is largely due to use of the latest technologies to catch the fish, said Chang Cheng-ping (張真萍), a Pingtung County Government official. Global positioning systems, refined baits, fishing lines and other innovations have increased the annual catch over the years -- though the tuna-catching rate of one tuna for every 10,000 fish caught, is probably the same as it was 12 years ago.

  

  Gutting and cleaning a bluefin tuna.

  PHOTO: DEREK LEE, TAIPEI TIMES

  Around 50,000 people live in Tungkang, comprising Taiwanese, Hakka and Chinese. And, although the population has decreased recently, it is still one of the most important fishing harbors in the country and the epitome of a thriving fishing port. The local fishermen's association is preparing to celebrate its centennial anniversary next month and the restaurant business, in particular, is booming, thanks largely to the conscientious efforts made by the county government since 2001 to promote this annual cultural event.

  Tungkang residents say there are plenty of reasons to visit their town, but they are particularly proud of what they call their "three treasures": Namely, the fine-textured bluefin tuna, the tiny and mouth-watering sergesgid shrimp (櫻花蝦), and the rarely harvested and sophisticated taste of ribbon fish eggs (油魚子).

  

  Catch of the day.

  PHOTO: DEREK LEE, TAIPEI TIMES

  Chang Tai-fang (張泰芳) is a local restauranteur and self-confessed gourmet in his early 40s, who has sponsored President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) state dinners in Pingtung for the past two years. He said that Discovery Channel once called bluefin tuna "the Porsche of the deep ocean" and President Chen called it "the Rolls Royce of fish meat" after tasting the fresh raw tuna slices, prepared in the Japanese sashimi style.

  

  Sorting the catch.

  PHOTO: DEREK LEE, TAIPEI TIMES

  Tuna is extremely healthy and rich in essential fish oils such as DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), which is particularly abundant in brain and retina tissue and is good for cardiovascular health, brain and nervous system function. Even better, though, the fine taste of its rose-pink flesh melts away in your mouth, an impressive sensation which has easily won over numerous Taiwanese and Japanese gourmets over the years.

  "I would not miss the taste of it for anything in the world. It is just hard to imagine the feeling of a piece of fish meat melting in your mouth like that ... it's a great feeling, almost funny," Chai Cheng-hsian (蔡增賢), a tourist at the Chang Family Restaurant (張家食堂) said.

  Dubbed by locals the "Black Jug" (黑甕串) because of its shape, the bluefin tuna has an elegant, streamlined body with grayish-blue fins. It has an astonishing swimming speed of 160kmh, outpacing the quickest of its predators, and weighs between 180kg and 300kg, after roving the North Pacific Ocean for about seven years.

  Lin Han-chou (林漢丑), the director of Tungkang fish market and a fisherman of nearly 30 years, said the North Pacific bluefin tuna is found from Green Island all the way up north to Ilan County (宜蘭縣), though bluefin tuna family members can also be found in the seas around Sicily, Italy. Tuna swim in the strong, warm currents of the North Pacific Ocean, or Kuroshio (黑潮), which emerge from around the equator near the Philippines and push northward a variety of fish in different seasons, past the Ryukyu and Kyushu Islands, and into the Japan Sea.

  A study published by the Taiwan Fisheries Administration (漁業署) suggests it takes about three years for the tuna to make an entire round trip. Like the mullet (烏魚), which rides one of the Kuroshio currents that ends up in Taiwan's southwestern ocean off Tainan County in November, bluefin tuna travel to Taiwan's eastern ocean to mate and lay eggs during the months of May and June every year, as part of their spawning migration.

  This journey takes advantage of the stocks of flying fish, which abound in the sea near Green Island and Orchid Island. It is at this time that bluefin tuna rise from the depths of the ocean and fisherman are able to make an easier catch.

  Commenting on this year's tuna catch so far, Lin said that as of May 9, fishermen at Tungkang had caught 695 bluefin tuna, which is far below last year's level of 1,500 in the same period. The reasons for this shortfall, Lin said, are twofold.

  First, the lingering typhoon Kujira in late April has resulted in fishing boats idling in port for over a week. Secondly, the Philippines navy detained five fishing boats from Tungkang last year and now no-one is willing to fish the overlapping fishing territory between Taiwan and the Philippines in the Bashi Channel (巴士海峽). With their fishing grounds reduced, local boats are facing increased difficulties reaping their marine harvests.

  Even so, the northward migration of schools of tuna is keeping the fishermen of Tungkang busy. The first bluefin tuna of the year was caught on April 23 and was a 117kg fish which was sold for NT$585,000 (about NT$5,000 per kilogram). Two days later, a 311kg tuna was hooked and sold for NT$2,052,600 (about NT$6,600 per kilogram). The local record for a bluefin tuna is over 450kg with a body length of 3m and was set four years ago. The world record is 500kg and 4m in length.

  Sale prices have gone up for the fish and last year 1kg of tuna meat was sold for NT$7,000 at the wholesale fish market at Tungkang, a record until yesterday when President Chen sponsored the opening ceremony and "auctioned" 1kg of fish for over NT$20,000.

  The fishermen at Tungkang mostly operate 20-tonne boats set up specifically to catch bluefin tuna, with eight crew. There are up to 550 boats rushing in and out of the harbor each day, on their way to the fishing grounds which are a two- to three-day trip away. To keep the catch fresh, a

  fishing boat usually heads back as soon as it catches five fish.

  "You know, for each 20-tonnes boat, it costs more than NT$10 million to build. The expense runs up to NT$150,000 for every trip to sea. So, if fishermen can catch five tuna every time, they can basically cover all of their expenses, plus a fair profit. That is why they are so anxious to move out again once the cargo is unloaded at this time of the year," Lin said.

  There are, however, hard times in the industry at the moment and Lin estimates the total catch of bluefin tuna this year will be approximately 3,500 fish when the season ends in late June, falling far short of last year's level of 5,300.

  Even so, Tungkang's fishermen will set out for years to come in the hope of another monster catch from the deep, as their ancestors did before them.
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