Mie
Toba

Jun 25, 2015 - 1 min read

Tōshijima's Sea Harvest

Seaweed, whitebait, and various other fish

By Cathy Cawood

Community writer

Small boats bring wakame seaweed to the port

The wakame is plunged into boiling water to stabilize it

Near the port many trays are set up for drying shirasu

Workers turning tiny fish (shirasu) on trays so that they dry evenly

The fish on the left have been drying longer than those on the right

Fishing boat carrying octopus pots

Nets hung up to dry

Checking the nets for holes as they dry in the sun

The big wheel on this truck is used to pull up large nets

Scale with big hook for weighing larger fish

Fish market worker transferring small sharks from a water-filled tank to a basket

I wonder what this fish is called?

Buyers inspect the catch at the fish market before the bidding starts

For small scales in the fish market

I took a short ferry trip from Toba and watched as wakame was unloaded from small boats. Workers on the docks immediately plunged the seaweed into vats of boiling water and it turned from black to rich green. As I walked away from the port I couldn't help but notice the net 'tables' for drying whitebait (shirasu in Japanese). My friends took me to a sizeable fish market where buyers write their bids on cards - only one chance to win the bid! Nearby an area with many fishing boats, and nets drying in the sun. For hundreds of years the people of Tōshijima have gathered food from the sea, and they are still at it!

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Cathy Cawood

By Cathy Cawood

Community writer

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