“It is eaten in private dinners by our politicians and business executives.” “The very best toro you cannot buy at all,” Mr. “It is necessary to have a food with a higher status than any other, and that is the toro of the giant bluefin.” Only a tiny percentage of the Japanese population can afford good toro, which costs about $75 for two bite-size pieces and is available only in the best sushi bars. “In Japan we are concerned with status in all things, including food,” says Sadanori Gunji, the author of The Flying Bluefin Tuna, a book about the phenomenon of giant tuna in Japan. A good piece of toro has a rind of glistening fish fat surrounding remarkably red and lustrous flesh, which is itself shot through with delicate, sugary strings of fat. In Japan there is a vocabulary to describe the belly of a giant tuna that is as rich as our vocabulary about wine. The fattest part of a giant tuna is the meat running in a diagonal stripe across its belly, which the Japanese call toro. The fat is what the Japanese pay so much money for. Some giants, however, sell for a mere $3,000 much depends on the quality of the fish–the fatter the better. A few years ago, one giant sold for $83,500. At the daily tuna auction in Tokyo it is not unusual to see a single giant bluefin tuna sell for $30,000. The most valuable wild animal in the world is not the white rhino, which is killed for its horn, nor the leopard, which is killed for its hide, nor the brown bear, which is killed for its gallbladder. Then he looks through the wheelhouse glass and says, “Sure would be nice to get onto the mother lode with no one else around.” Brooks Weiner, wearing glasses like his brother’s, swings into the cabin and punches a few coordinates into loran. Boothbay Harbor, Maine, is a white smudge at our stem. Ahead of the Elizabeth Ames, due east, is the open ocean. The glasses, which have polarized lenses and stylish leather blinders to keep out the light, are necessary for looking through the shield of glare on the surface of the ocean and seeing the tuna underneath. sun, sprays and polishes and inspects them again. Steve Weiner sprays his sunglasses with Windex, polishes them, holds them toward the 6:30 A.M. You open these pages, you had better start reading early because you are going be drawn in.Stalking the disappearing bluefin tuna From Harper’s magazine Harpoon is a captivating true story with a collection of photographs that paint the picture of a time never forgotten, and lived on by a handful of guys who still 'aim the dart'. The men of old, the great harpooners of yesterday, and the fishermen of today who try to follow in those footsteps, Harpoon tells the tale of these few, the 'Iron-men' the 'Stick boats', the harpooners. They adapt to their changing environment, altering their patterns and behavior adapting to fishing pressure, they avoid dangerous areas, the boats and men that mean them harm.Harpoon is vivid history of a fishery few people even know exists, taking the reader out on the pulpit, looking into the blue-green waters of the North Atlantic ocean searching for the black backs of the bluefin. The bluefin tuna is warm blooded, extremely smart, long living and a highly migratory species. Fish stories, oh yeah, plenty of those, but the descriptions of how these fish are pursued, and the passion of the men who chase them is unprecedented. Corky takes us back though the history of this unique fishery to the very first one known to be harpooned in modern times to what the fishery has become today. The bluefin tuna, the most prized, expensive fish swimming in our oceans, are still harvested with hand thrown harpoons. It is one of the oldest and most primitive methods ever applied to the harvesting of fish, but it has survived and a handful of fishermen in New England still call themselves harpooners. Throwing a pole at a fish, 'a harpoon', in today's high tech world of bots and micro chips, sounds kinda, past tense, and well, very old.
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