となりは何をする人ぞ？： コピペ

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/08/23/fukushima-daiichi-area-off-limits-for-fall-fish-favorite/

AUGUST 23, 2011, 2:51 PM JST

Fukushima Daiichi Area Off-limits for Fall Fish Favorite

By Juro Osawa

The eagerly awaited season for Pacific saury, the fish known as sanma here, has just begun.

But this year fishermen will have to hunt a little farther and wider than usual to catch the slender, silvery staple of Japanese cooking. And customers may have to pay more.

Associated Press

Fishery workers grilled Pacific saury, a popular seasonal delicacy, to evacuees in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 20.

That’s because a cooperative representing the country’s saury fishing industry said this week that it will not catch any sanma in waters within a 100-kilometer (62-mile) radius of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a move to address concerns among wholesalers, retailers and consumers about possible radioactive contamination of seafood in the area. With trace amounts of radioactive cesium already detected in some Hokkaido samples in early July, at levels far below the Japanese government’s regulatory limit, the precaution seems sound.

Japan’s four seasons come with various seasonal delicacies. Fall offerings are particularly rich, with chestnuts, persimmons, pears, grapes and matsutake mushrooms. But no list of Japan’s late summer-early fall specialties would be complete without the distinctive, angular-jawed sanma, often known in English as mackerel pike, which can be eaten raw as sashimi, or char-grilled and typically served with grated daikon radish.

The waters within 100 kilometers off the Fukushima nuclear plant usually become major sanma fishing sites around October to November, according to the sanma fishery co-op. The sanma currently found at stores in Japan are the season’s first batches, caught in waters near the northern island of Hokkaido. From there, the fish will gradually travel south, with fishing boats moving along with them. But if the local catch ends up being smaller, imports may be required to meet demand, pushing up retail prices.

In June, two months before this year’s fishing season began, Hokkaido’s local government started testing saury for radiation in waters farther north. Apart from the trace amounts of cesium found in early July, no other radioactive elements have been detected in any other sanma samples so far.

“People at fish markets and retailers have voiced their concerns about radioactive contamination this year, so we are taking steps to eliminate such concerns,” said a spokesman for the co-op about the decision to suspend sanma-fishing near the nuclear plant. The public has become more concerned about the safety of food since disclosures last month of the widespread sale of contaminated beef.

Because sanma travels from north to south throughout autumn, the co-op will closely monitor the results of radiation tests when schools of sanma travel in the sea off Fukushima around October, before deciding whether to extend the suspension and refrain from fishing in waters farther south, the spokesman said.