Iyoboya Hall, a museum specializing in Japanese salmon in Niigata Prefecture’s Murakami City, recently announced that they have absolutely no live salmon to display during their traditional live salmon exhibition.
According to the museum website, the abnormally high water temperatures this summer drastically reduced the number of fish caught in Japanese waters this season–with some areas like Hokkaido only bringing in 60 percent of their usual catch. As far as Japanese salmon go, only 1,200 were reported caught this season.
Japanese freshwater salmon prefer water below 15 degrees Celsius, so they hang out in the cold Arctic waters during winter. To lay their eggs, though, they need slightly warmer water, and so they swim south to Japan during the summer and autumn months. With both air and water temperatures so high this summer, however, many salmon avoided their usual Japanese routes.
Japanese netizens were both sorrowful and understanding:
“It’s just a part of nature, so you can’t really blame them.”
“Some are calling this summer’s weather unusual, but I think it will soon become the usual.”
“It’s crazy that a museum dedicated to salmon doesn’t have even one [live] salmon on display.”
So unfortunately, no live fish for viewing this year. This will likely affect next year’s exhibition as well, according to the museum’s announcement. They still have their normal informative exhibitions, and hopefully nature will bless Japan with cooler waters for Japan’s favorite fish next year.
Source: Iyoboya Hall, With News via Yahoo! News Japan, My Game News Flash
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Japanese people list their top ten fish, and tuna isn’t number one
-- Pokémon GO to take over Tokyo’s Asakusa with ukiyo-e style routes
-- New Studio Ghibli Howl’s Moving Castle die-cast toy cars on sale today, new preview pics shown
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2023/11/20/japanese-museum-dedicated-to-salmon-have-no-live-salmon-on-display-this-year/
17 Comments
Login to comment
Mr Kipling
Kind of reminds me of a zoo I visited in Poland. Only had one animal, a dog. It was a Shih Tzu.
sakurasuki
Salmon without real live salmon, irony is imitate actual Japan where there are schools without any children
https://www.tbsnews.net/world/schools-out-forever-ageing-japan-730194
or village without people just dolls
https://unusualplaces.org/nagoro-a-creepy-japanese-village-where-dolls-replace-the-departed/
kurisupisu
There are plenty of salmon bits in the supermarket near me and as for Russian salmon?
Plenty to go round eh!
garymalmgren
This is not unique to Nigatta or Hokkaido.
I sail and fish.
The coastal water in Miyagi this summer was a constant 30 degrees.
That was recorded on my boat. Didn't catch one fish and the pros often came home empty handed.
This affecting aquaculture as well.
Aly Rustom
If you can afford it. As a bodybuilder salmon is definitely on my list of seafood, but I just can't afford it. Still ok with cheap shrimp and tuna fish cans though.
wallace
We eat salmon several times a week. Not expensive.
BackpackingNepal
Most people buy farmed salmon which doesn't have benefits by the time it's on the table after being frozen for 6 months and another a week at display in the supermarket. Get the Wild.
kohakuebisu
If I know Japan, this is presumably a "look at (live) salmon" - "eat some (dead) salmon" - "take home some salmon as omiyage" operation. So parts two and three will still function without part one. Maybe they could project map some fish onto the tank.
In more serious terms, there are record high sea temps around Japan. We are heading into strong El Nino but the sea is much warmer than in previous El Nino events like 2015-16. We may be in for some unusual weather. Big snowstorms in unusual places etc.
Mocheake
Something fishy not going on up there.
fatrainfallingintheforest
What tipped the scales?
Vreth
@BackpackingNepal
Eating non-frozen fish is asking for a mouthful of parasites.
BackpackingNepal
@Vreth
Forgot the word "Raw"?
Eastman
bring some from Costco there is sale now...chilean or japanese who minds but-salmon...
ifd66
How ignorant is this person?
No, its human activity.
Damming the rivers so they can't spawn, pathogens from fish farms that transfer to wild stock, pollution from agriculture, and to top it all off, climate change.
ifd66
The most informative exhibition would be an empty tank with a full explanation as to why.
Vreth
@BackpackingNepal
No, maybe you misunderstood. Raw salmon is fine for sushi, if has been frozen first. Wild caught salmon almost certainly has parasites.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-salmon-parasites-nemotodes-1.5214805
OssanAmerica
Very few if any sushi chefs use wild salmon regardless of having been frozen or not. Just about any salmon served in raw form is farmed Atlantic Salmon from Norway or Chile. It has been that way in Japan since the 1980s when salmon was first introduced as a sushi ingredient.
The Ainu people of Hokkaido have a dish called Ruibe, which is wild Chum Salmon frozen outside in the cold then thawed, eaten raw. The extreme cold does not kill parasites but weakens them to the point that they no longer pose a threat to people. In the U.S. the term "Sushi Grade" means freezing at or below -20c for at least 7 days.
Curing wild salmon using salt and or vinegar reduces the risk of parasites. The Swedish Gravlax is salt and sugar cured but still raw. The Masu Zushi of Toyama Precfecture is salt and vinegar cured, but basically raw.