Tunaつながりの記事紹介

ナショジオのマグロ特集で思い出したのが先月WSJで紹介していた近畿大学のマグロ完全養殖の記事。2000語を超える記事ですが、養殖の苦労などを丁寧に伝えてくれています。知識がある内容だと長さもそんなに苦にならないはずです。

Taming the Wild Tuna
Why Farmed Fish Are Taking Over Our Dinner Plates
By YUKA HAYASHI
Updated Nov. 14, 2014 12:57 p.m. ET

KUSHIMOTO, Japan— Tokihiko Okada was on his boat one recent morning when his cellphone rang with an urgent order from a Tokyo department store. Its gourmet food section was running low on sashimi. Could he rustle up an extra tuna right away?

Mr. Okada, a researcher at Osaka’s Kinki University, was only too happy to oblige—and he didn’t need a fishing pole or a net. Instead, he relayed the message to a diver who plunged into a round pen with an electric harpoon and stunned an 88-pound Pacific bluefin tuna, raised from birth in captivity. It was pulled out and slaughtered immediately on the boat.

Not long ago, full farming of tuna was considered impossible. Now the business is beginning to take off, as part of a broader revolution in aquaculture that is radically changing the world’s food supply.

“We get so many orders these days that we have been catching them before we can give them enough time to grow,” said Mr. Okada, a tanned 57-year-old who is both academic and entrepreneur. “One more year in the water, and this fish would have been much fatter,” as much as 130 pounds, he added.

本マグロを説明しているのが以下の部分です。

The Japanese treasure the fish’s rich red meat so much that they call it “hon-maguro” or “true tuna.” Others call it the Porsche of the sea. At an auction in Tokyo, a single bluefin once sold for $1.5 million, or $3,000 a pound.

記事にa round penという表現がありましたが、生け簀の囲いのことを指しています。この記事には何度も登場します。赤ちゃんを入れておくベビーサークルはplaypenと呼びますね。

（オックスフォード）
pen
a small piece of land surrounded by a fence in which farm animals are kept
a sheep pen

playpen
a frame with wooden bars or netting that surrounds a small area in which a baby or small child can play safely

ちなみに近畿大学は英文パンフレットを作っているようです。
http://www.flku.jp/english/index_image/flku.pdf

この記事を読むと近畿大のマグロを食べてみたくなりますが、以下で述べているように東京にある近畿大学水産研究所 銀座店は夜は予約でいっぱいのようですから、ランチにでもいってみたいと思います。

Demand is certainly rising for the farmed tuna from gourmet stores and sushi restaurants in Japan. The university itself runs two restaurants in Tokyo’s Ginza district and Osaka, both of them booked months in advance, it says. In Nagasaki prefecture, one of the main areas for domestic tuna farming, shipments of farmed bluefin rose to 3,000 tons in 2013, nearly five times the amount five years earlier.

天然マグロについてどう書いているのか気になったので、ネット検索してみるとたまたま寿司政がクアラルンプールに店を開くという記事で大間のマグロについて説明していました。一本釣りはpole-and-line fishingなんですね。

EAT/DRINK
Upscale Japanese sushi specialist Ginza Sushimasa delivers a ‘wow’ factor in KL
BY LEE KHANG YI
PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 1, 2014 03:25 PM

KUALA LUMPUR — Discerning diners can now enjoy exquisite sushi at Ginza Sushimasa, which has opened its first Malaysian restaurant at Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur.

The sushi specialist has outlets in Tokyo's Ginza area and Sendai.

It is part of Amino Co Ltd, a 25-year-old group with a total of 32 restaurants in Sendai, Osaka and Tokyo.

They also own Umai Sushi Kan and Marukuni, which specialises in kaiten or conveyor belt sushi. The group also has a presence in Shanghai and Hong Kong through a franchise arrangement.

*******

In Ginza Sushimasa, they only use bluefin tuna caught in the wild. “In Malaysia, we tried a lot of tuna or maguro, but almost all is farmed,” says Takamasa.

Currently, the superb top-grade tuna served in Ginza Sushimasa is from Oma, a place prized for their pole-and-line fishing, until the season finishes by end of December.

“It's all natural, no farmed tuna and not frozen.”

The restaurant uses their own special sauce to brush over the fish – a special blend of shoyu or Japanese soy sauce, sake and bonito flakes.

Here, the flavours are kept light to not distract you from the flavour of the fish.

“It's a light taste so you can taste the fish, if it's too strong you cannot enjoy it.” For those who prefer a stronger taste, dip your sushi with the soy sauce served on the side.


大間のマグロについてはちょっと古いですがニューヨークタイムズが現地に赴いて記事にしていました。「黒いダイヤ」は英語ではFishermen here call it “black gold,” referring to the dark red flesh of the Pacific bluefin tuna that is so prized in this sashimi-loving nationとblack goldとなっています。

Tuna Town in Japan Sees Falloff of Its Fish
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: September 19, 2009

OMA, Japan — Fishermen here call it “black gold,” referring to the dark red flesh of the Pacific bluefin tuna that is so prized in this sashimi-loving nation that just one of these sleek fish, which can weigh a half-ton, can earn tens of thousands of dollars.

The cold waters here once yielded such an abundance of bluefin, with such thick layers of tasty rich fat, that this tiny wind-swept seaport became Japan’s answer to California’s Napa Valley or the Brie cheese-producing region of France: a geographic location that is nearly synonymous with one of its nation’s premier foods.

So strong is the allure of Oma’s tuna that during the autumn fishing season, tens of thousands of hungry visitors descend on this remote fishing town, located on the northernmost tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu. On a recent Sunday, dozens of tourists, filmed by no fewer than three local television crews, crowded into an old refrigerated warehouse on a pier where Oma’s mayor presided over a ceremony to slice up a 220-pound bluefin into brick-size blocks for sale.

日本人は大間と聞けばマグロと連想できますが、日本のことをよく知らない読者を想定すると一工夫必要になるでしょう。この記者はJapan’s answer to California’s Napa Valley or the Brie cheese-producing region of France: a geographic location that is nearly synonymous with one of its nation’s premier foodsと書いています。Napa Valleyはオックスフォードにもワインの中心地とあります。


（オックスフォード）
Napa Valley
a valley in the US state of California which is the centre of the US wine industry. It is north of Oakland, and its largest town is Napa.

こういう工夫が外国語でのコミュニケーションでは不可欠になりますので、英語学習においては意識するようにしたいです。ちなみに記事にあった写真のキャプションに以下のようなTOEIC的な文章がありました。。。

A fisherman unloading an increasingly rare tuna catch.