Thornyheads, a type of rockfish, are popular in Japan for “nitsuke” preparation, in which they are simmered whole in a sauce of sake, mirin, water, soy sauce, sugar and ginger. Their size is suitable for whole-plate presentation.
There are three main species of thornyheads collectively known as “kinki” in Japan: the shortspine (Sebastolubus alascanus), longspine (Sebastolobus altivelis) and broadbanded (Sebastes macrochir). The shortspine and longspine species range from the Bering Sea to Baja California and differ in the length of their third dorsal fin spine. The broadbanded is found from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands westward to Honshu Island in Japan and is the typical species for Japan. The name refers to its broad pectoral fins. In the southern parts of the thornyhead’s range their habitat becomes deeper as they seek colder water. All are orangish red, a common adaptation among fish living in deep water, where the red spectrum is filtered out of sunlight, making them less visible.
Seasonally, frozen kinki prices are lowest in summer and highest in fall and early winter. Last year’s low at the Sapporo public auction was 1,047 yen per kilogram (kg) in June and the high was 1,749 yen in December.
In the United States and Canada, thornyheads go by a variety of common names, including “idiot fish” and “channel rockfish.” Oregon-based Pacific Seafoods exports thornyheads to Japan, but other redfish of similar size can also be substituted.
Samasa Suisan of Numazu City, Japan, sells Hilgendorf saucord (Helicolenus hilgendorfii), or “yumekasago” in Japanese, at about the same price as kinki, roughly 1,500 yen per kg for whole frozen fish. They are taken from Tsuruga Bay, which is Japan’s deepest bay at 2,500 meters. Fish harvested from such deep waters may show bulging eyes and inflated airbladders on being brought to the surface, the result of pressure differences, not lack of freshness. The season is from September to March, as sinking of surface water in the cold months provides nutrients to the ocean floor, allowing the saucord to fatten. The fish is similar to kinki, but with a lighter, less-oily flavor.
Ocean perch, both Pacific (Sebastes alutus) and Atlantic, are also substituted, as the “ocean perch” is not really a perch, but actually a rockfish. The common name was adopted for marketing in the American Midwest, where freshwater perch are well known and readily accepted. They differ from the thornyheads in that they school and give birth to live young rather than laying eggs.
Rosefish (Sebastes norvegicus, formerly Sebastes marinus) and deepwater redfish (Sebastes mentella) from Iceland dominate the international market for Atlantic ocean perch and serve as the benchmark price. The fish range the North Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America, but the main fishing area is the Irminger Sea between Iceland and southeastern Greenland.
The rosefish is also referred to as the “golden redfish” and has a lighter color than the deepwater redfish. This species is preferred in Europe and United States, while the Japanese market prefers a bright red color.
The bulk of the Canadian catch is made up of the deepwater redfish and the similar Acadian redfish (Sebastes fasciatus), both of which are sometimes referred to as “beaked redfish” due to the presence of a prominent tubercle on the lower jaw. U.S. product is almost all Acadian redfish from the Gulf of Maine.
At Tokyo’s FOODEX show in March, Shigeru Ueda, president of Japan operations for St. John’s, Newfoundland-based Ocean Choice International, said his company aims to take Japanese market share from Iceland.
Meanwhile, Iceland is aiming boost its market appeal further, announcing in late April that it is entering Marine Stewardship Council sustainability assessment for redfish and saithe.
Frozen redfish from the Irminger Sea has been rising from February due to poor catches. The price of frozen U.S. redfish conversely has been dropping. In mid-March the quoted Japan price was 310 yen per kg for 400- to 500-gram whole fish. The main concern among traders is the effect of the weakening yen, which recently fell to 100 per U.S. dollar.
