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The following photos shot by Jerry Yap-san show the first half of what
went on.
We were watching the carving of this 236-kilogram (520 lbs) tuna at a middleman
store. It was the auction number 1 tuna (In terms of auction numbers, the
smaller the numbers are, the better the fish is). The tuna was from a newcomer
fishing boat from the tag that was hooked on the fish.
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The tuna was carved in quarters and when the first quarter of the berry
meat was cut off, a very silent bewilderment occurred among all of the
workers of store. Then the young manager--the son of the owner of the store--started
to regret a lot, but still smiling probably trying to cover his confusion.
I felt that something wrong happened. Workers of other middleman stores
started to gather to watch the scene. I asked one of them, "Did something
happen?"
"Yes, yake," answered the worker.
The quartered belly meat was moved to a table for inspection. The entire
surface of the large belly meat looked slightly dim and white in a sort
of a cloudy manner, which was very different from the shiny red tuna meat
you regularly see.
Finally, the manager, the successor to carry on this store, got into a
really bad mood and started to get rid of the tourists. The tourists had
been growing into a big crowd because perhaps, they also noticed that something
irregular was going on. So, we had the leave the scene with the other tourists.
Yake means a 'burn' and happens when the tuna is not properly cooled down by ice after the catch.
Tuna, especially blue fin tuna, are fish that have a very high body temperature.
When tuna are fished by local fishermen mostly by fishing rods, the tuna battle fiercely, so their bodies get extremely hot. If the tuna isn't cooled down immediately, sometimes the heat cooks the meat and a yake occurs.
It is hard to detect if a tuna has a yake by prior-inspections. They are mostly found out when the tunas are carved.
Yake is not a seldom thing to happen. Yake is a big reason that makes the
fresh tuna business a risky one, sometimes close to gambling. When there
are several competitors for a tuna, they raise the price. If the middleman
that bought the expensive tuna finds a yake, he loses a lot of money.
We felt sorry for the middleman but at the same time, it was a very extraordinary
and interesting experience.
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It was truly my honor and pleasure to have been able to attend Mr. &
Mrs. Cohn from San Francisco on our tour on May 15, 2008.
