среда, 22 декабря 2021 г.

Russian sea cucumber

 

понедельник, 22 ноября 2021 г.

Russian trepang

V. Kalashnikov, Ph. D. in biology

 

      For the very first time in my life I learned about the existence of sea cucumbers while reading Jules Verne's novel "Captain Nemo: 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", where Nemo was treating his prisoners led by Professor Pierre Aronax, serving them seafood including "bech-de-mer", which is the sea cucumber in French. It had happened in my youth at the age of 15-16 and this object would not have been stayed in my mind for a long time if 5-6 years later, after graduating from college and receiving diplomas of ichthyologist and aquaculture engineer in 1976, I did not find myself in the Far East of Russia at the coast of the Posyet Bay of the Sea of ​​Japan. It is here, in the rich fauna, among a variety of fish, crawfish, mussels, oysters, scallops, starfishes, sea urchins, sea anemones, ascidians etc., that the sea cucumber turned out to be the most mysterious and exotic object of macro benthos. It does not possess much of attraction in its appearance, yet the sea cucumbers were present here everywhere. Back then there were no much of demand of it by locals as a fishing object, but rumors and publications about "trepang", were quite intriguing. Here, next to the bay, there was ancient, mysterious, great, totally closed for us at the time, Chinese state. It was there where this obscure living creature was worshiped and it kept our young, curious, ready for discoveries minds in flurry.

 

 


      In Russia, the sea cucumber is called trepang. This name took root from the Malaysian and Indonesian languages, where trepang (tripang or teripang) was a boiled salted-dried product obtained from sea cucumbers harvested in Indo-Pacific. Trepanging meant both the catching of the trepang itself and the process of cooking and drying it, as well as its sales to China and Singapore. In the middle Ages, this product was actively used as a replacement for silver currency for the trade with China (...). In Russia, this sea cucumber lives mainly in the south of the Primorsky Territory or Primorye region (map from Levin .. or Lebedev ..), as well as in the south of Sakhalin Island and the southern Kuril Islands. It is represented here by the only species Apostihopus japonicus Selenka, which also lives along the coasts of Japanese islands, Korean Peninsula eastern shore of China. This species has a long history of being eaten by Chinese elite, who regards it as a delicacy and also believes in the high healing and rejuvenating qualities of the product. It is likely that the sea cucumber was on their menu since the time of great thinker Confucius, about 2500 years ago. For the soup called "Eight immortal daredevils who crossed the stormy night sea together with the monk Arhat" is still known in this country. This soup contains eight expensive ingredients including bird nests, shark fins, fish bladder, sea cucumber (“hishen”in Chinese) and some others boiled in chicken broth. According to the legend, it is the Confucius chef who is the author of this recipe. (https://www.pressreader.com/china/beijing-english/20180705/281556586578464 ...).  (https://www.pressreader.com/china/beijing-english/20180705/281556586578464 ...). "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea"   prepared from delicacies from both land and sea, is considered as a first course at birthday banquets and a main dish of Confucian cusine " .

 

       One way or another, in the modern world of open trade, the new elite of the phenomenally developing Celestial Empire is buying up many species of holothurians, usually called sea cucumbers, all over the world, but it is Apostichopus japonicus Selenka species that has here the highest demand and the highest price. Also the highest quality and the most expensive product of this species is the “stichopus” caught in Japanese Mutsu Bay in Aomori prefecture. The buyers value it for the best taste and appearance which is due to a long history and tradition in its craft and quality processing. In Japan the sea cucumber (“namako” in Japanese) boom began during the unification of the inimical shogunates and the heyday of the "Land of the Rising Sun during Edo period, which began with the reign of the Tokugawa clan and lasted from 1603 to 1868. It was at this time when control over the fishing, processing and sales of sea cucumbers to China was combined under the shoguns. During this time, the modest "namako" brought the maximum export income for the then Japan. As a result, this species of sea cucumber had a strong impact not only on the country's economy, it also left a strong imprint on the national culture of Japan. The name "namako" is mentioned in Japanese Hokku poetry more often than full moon, fresh snow or Sakura ("Rise, Ye Sea Slugs!" Robin D. Gill. 2003). The Japanese secrets of sea cucumbers processing are still strictly guarded and usually performed by women. Their men just have to fish it. One of the Hong Kong wholesalers is blurted out to me that Japanese add freshly cut sagebrush to boiling water, and also they put deliberately pieces of rusty scrap metal into modern stainless steel digesters. It is unlikely that these are all the secrets, but the fact remains that the retail prices for the dried Japanese sea cucumber in Qingdao supermarkets are comparable to the price of troy ounce of gold. They ask 9600 renminbi or 1300 US dollars per a half kilo (Personal observations in 2010).

 

      About the study of this species

 

      In the view of the long history of consumption of the Stichopus japonicus sea cucumber and its millenniums-old demand in the Chinese market, as well as the richness of the nutrient components of this organism, arguably it is the one of the most comprehensively studied marine inhabitants of macro benthos. In Russia, this was facilitated by the presence of research organizations and universities. Here, in Vladivostok alone, there are academic institutes of marine biology, geography, oceanology, and Pacific Institute of bioorganic chemistry. Also, there are one industrial fishery scientific TINRO-centre, two universities, federal and university of fish industry Dalribvtuz as well. Their scientists and employees have carried out a lot of research, and have published hundreds of articles devoted to the study of the sea cucumber and the work continues at the present time. 

As the species, Stichopus japonicus Selenka was firstly described  by famous German zoologist Emil Selenka in 1867. In the Chinese treatise on healing herbs and organisms the sea cucumber was introduced in the middle of 1600s and I dare to assume that it was this particular species. (Compendium of Materia Medica Classic Collection Complete Works Original Genuine Li Shizhen),  

                                     

The modern scientific publications contain detailed data on its taxonomy, life cycles, lifestyle, behaviour, anatomy, genetics, chemical composition, and geographical distribution, population structure, fishing history, cultivation methods and other aspects. In the book “Дальневосточный трепанг:биология, промысел, воспроизводство (“Far-eastern trepan; biology, fishing, reproduction”) of my dear mentor V.S. Levin alone (2006), the author refers to about three hundred books and articles on this object published in Russian and English mostly. Naturally, there are many authors writing in Chinese, Korean and Japanese that remain difficult to reach by European readers.  Many new modern studies are in development now, particularly, on the genetic population of the species, on its individual and group behavior and migrations. Much work is expected on the part of marine biochemists. Many original books and compilations have been released recently in Chinese, English, Russian and Japanese (…). The modern full name of this species is taken as a homotypic synonym for the original taxon and is published as Apostichopus japonicus Selenka. 

                                                                                     

    The history of "trepanging" or sea cucumber fishery in Russia

 

      We can only guess about the distant history of the sea cucumber fishery in the current region of Russian Far East, in Primorye region (Primorsky krai) in particular. For the periods of the rule of this territory by the Bohai kingdom in 698-926 AD and the Jurchen people in 1115-1234 AD “trepanging” did not leave any evidences of such after disintegration of the kingdoms. At the same time, we are well aware that the marine coastal fishing of the local population has been very active since ancient times. Here abundance of marine middens are available, consisted of billions oyster shells primarily in the coastal sediments in the places of ancient settlements (Brodyansky D.L., Rakov V.A.) Yet, the soft tissues of the sea cucumbers, if they were harvested, did not leave any traces.

        After the Peking Treaty of 1860, Russia received the rights on the vast Far-Eastern territory including Primorye region (Peking Treaty 1860, Wikipedia). That was the time when the modern statehood and the first written evidences of the economic activities of the local population appeared. Those reports included coastal fishing and marine harvesting businesses. At the time they were practiced mainly by Korean natives, as well as Chinese, Japanese and some endemic folks (..). 

Starting from those time till nowadays the history of that region was very turbulent. 

The development of the remote territories under Russian administration was marked by the Manza war in 1869 and continuous fighting with local Honghuzi gangs. It was interrupted by the war with Japan at the beginning of the 20th century, then the Russian revolution 1917 happened, followed by the foreign intervention and the civil war. After them the Tsarist rule was replaced by the Soviet one, which abolished most of the private businesses. Just before the World War Two, all the Korean and Chinese population was completely deported from the region to Central Asia. After the WWII there the Cold one had started, which led to further internal militarization and isolation of the region. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Iron Curtain been dropped and the country's borders get wide open.  Remarkably all of these historical events affected Apostichopus japonicus population dramatically. They were changing participants of the industry, the scale of harvesting and intensity, the methods and techniques, the social role of the business and the market, the public ignorance and understanding, the civil level and criminal involvement, the strictness of control and regulation. It is in new development at the moment.

 

 

Before the revolution.

 

As mentioned before, in1860s, mostly the local Korean peasants were engaged in sea cucumber harvesting in the area. They were using simple rowing and sailing boats, and long spears or scoop-nets as the fishing gear. Such tools were good in shallow, up to 4 meters deep, water and to spot the object on the bottom they were using a "mirror" as they called it. It was floating small robust wooden box with clear glass bottom to survey sea bottom visually.  For the deeper fishing, these peasants applied simple dredges with a metal frame and a net bag attached (…). 

The other old reports are mentioning free diving as sea cucumber collecting method. The divers were skilled Korean women capable to pick up sea cucumbers from the depth up to 10 meters.  Those women were strong enough for continuous 1-2 hours diving before they need to climb boat to warm up. They were picking free laying sea cucumbers by hands placing them in small mesh bags tied to their waist. While surfaced they were replacing their catch in bigger bags that were attached to big tin canisters afloat. The divers were working as a team up to ten divers on single boat.  A Korean man was the master on the boat who supervised the divers and their catch "who was constantly smoking a pipe" (....).

The work of these women was more productive than any other fishing method at the time. It was mentioned that such divers could be "bought" as "wholesale" purchase by team for a season.   One diver would worth one hundred rubles on this condition. For their skills and stamina local folks nicknamed those women "baba nerpa" ("baba seal"(https://konkurent.ru/article/27910 ).

Trepanging fleet was consisted of hundreds "junks" numbered in the areas of the Peter the Great Bay and Posyet Bay and some areas up north from the bays. Fishing was carried out from "ice to ice" season. It could have been started late in April ant last through the end of November. Then the boats were pulled ashore before the freeze-up. Some witnesses that were participating in establishing Posyet outpost were mentioning about thousand "junks" wintered nearby on Nazimov sand spit (Churkhado). The prominent Russian pioneer V. Arseniev admitted this scale of the boats numbered in Vladivostok area. He also noted that China does not have its own sea cucumbers, since they were completely wiped out by their own fishermen long time ago (V.K. Arseniev, 1906)

According to N.P. Matveev's information found in the " Brief Historical Sketch of the City of Vladivostok, 1860-1910, it says " in 1867, "... 800 poods of “sea worms” (sea cucumbers) were exported from Primorye." That is about 13 tons of dried product. The same figure was later confirmed by M. Venyukov in 1873 (...) and D. Bogdanov in 1909, who literally stated it as follows: “Hundreds of Chinese junks, schooners and scows came here (to Vladivostok ) and uncontrollably loaded their “trepangs” unpaid and untaxed"(...)

In fact, this fishing was not free for the peasants. All fishing and trade was controlled by the seasonally coming Chinese gangs of Honghuzi. Each boat owner had to pay 1 ruble for the right to fish and hand over all the catch to the representatives of these gangs. The Honghuzi also had controlled the processing, cooking and drying of sea cucumbers, which they exported across the border to China lately.  

 

         Once established Russian administration had started developing control and regulation over local industries. On this way the state faced fierce resistance from Honghuzi. These ethnic gangs had long history of their own control over all lucrative and beneficial businesses in the area. They were well organized, armed and extremely violent. Besides the fisheries, they had controlled gold prospectors, ginseng root diggers, opium trade and “hanshin” or moonshine vodka businesses. They had practiced racketeering and extortion from successful merchants and farmers. The Honghuzi did not disdain demonstrative intimidation, torture, murder, theft of children and women, and they were not going to give it up to the new government. The tsarist administration was forced to use regular army to fight these gangs when trying to organize control over gold mining on the island of Askold, as well as during construction of the railway (...). 

One way or another a number of rules were introduced and some kind of control over marine production was established at the turn of the century. The coastal waters were divided into areas in which fishing for sea cucumbers was allowed and their alternation was practiced. After one or two seasons of work, the fished areas were closed for restoration of sea cucumber population, while others were opened. Peasants were given fishing permits either individually or collectively for entire villages. The same ethnic Koreans who adopted Russian citizenship were main forces driving sea cucumber harvesting. Also, the government leased out part of the aquatic areas along the coast to Japanese companies. Those Japanese had a good command of the sea cucumber processing technique and had excellent sales of it to China at the highest prices. That were them who had pioneered usage of diving equipment to pick up sea cucumbers it this area in 1887. It was very modern for those times and lead to dominant technique in the prospect.  The diver’s productivity was 30-35 times more effective than any other traditional, peasant fishing methods.

  

       Than the dramatic events associated with the coups and wars that began in 1905 to 1924 severely disrupted the structure and organization of all economic activities in this region. The Japanese, who sent their troops to the Russian Far East in 1918, took advantage of the chaos and established intensive sea cucumber diving, which lasted until their forces were driven out in 1922. 

 

    After the revolution 

 

After the establishment of Soviet power in the region, life began to organizing again. The permits were issued. All foreign sea cucumber catchers were banned from "trepanging" and diving method of harvesting for sea cucumbers was well mastered. This method was legally and practically accepted by both private partnerships and state-owned companies. At the same time, the traditional "Manza" peasant fishing was preserved, carried out by the same native Koreans with their traditional primitive tools.  

It lasted for decade and half when steady harvesting prevailed with fair control and reports of the catch by the locations and by the participants as well.  

Then another danger aroused on the eve of the WW2. In 1938 new military conflict had happened between Soviet and Japanese forces on the Russian Korean border at the most southern zone of the region.  Due to increased danger of the Japanese invasion the entire oriental population of Primorye was deported to Central Asia, particularly to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.  Almost 200 thousand people were relocated, estimated 172 thousand of them were Korean nation. With this all the "Manza" peasant trepanging business had ceased and the remnants of the gangs of "Honghuzi" disappeared too. The sea cucumber fishery had went completely into the hands of cooperatives and state-owned enterprises. From now on, it was heavy diving equipment harvesting only. Due to bulky suit, heavy helmet and lead chest weight diver would pick up sea cucumber from the bottom with a sharp gaff ("bagorok") and put it in mesh bag ("pitomza"). Once the bag is filled full he will pass it to boat crew for evisceration and do bag exchange.  

 

 

In 1941, WWII began.

 

During the war, most of capable males were drafted and the sea cucumber trade and fishing had slowed for another decade.

  After the war in 1950s, it was revived, but due to the new political problems, foreign trade went entirely under state control and private business practically ceased. 

At the time there were about thirty wooden "Kawasaki" dive motorboats, built as the prototype of pre-revolutionary Japanese fishermen boats. They were well equipped with modern diesel engines and motor pumps for air supply.

These boats were working all over southern coasts of southern Primorye between Russky and Furugelma islands and in all inner coves of Posyet and Peter the Great bays. All of them belonged to single fish processing plant on Popov Island in the city of Vladivostok. The harvested volume through these years 1950-70s varied within 200 to 400 tonnes per season (Lebedev, 2006).

Towards the end of the 1970s marine biologists of the Pacific Institute (TINRO-centre) came to conclusion that continuous fishing had seriously depleted the local stocks of sea cucumbers and complete state ban was introduced on its further fishing in 1979. Surprisingly, the same year coincided with the fierce hurricane “Irving”, which on August 18 smashed all the wooden hulls of diving motorboats at the dock of fish processing plant. This was the end of the Soviet period of sea cucumber fishing. 

  Soviet era was also featured with strict state control over export operations and foreign currency circulation. There were state-owned enterprises engaged in fishing activity, while export operations were carried out by other companies, and the state took most of the foreign exchange earnings to the treasury, leaving only wages to the workers. This led to the fact that people of that time did not see and did not know the real value and significance of this particular sea cucumber fishing. 

Interesting fact of the time, all restaurants in the city of Vladivostok were serving standard dish under the name "Skoblyanka iz Trepanga" (kind of sea cucumber goulash) which was considered as exotic cuisine. The same dish of the time was prepared in “Peking” restaurant in Moscow. It was ordered by curious lovers of exotic food, by tourists, and there were real fans of the unique recipe. It is difficult to find the author of this recipe, but it was clearly one of the Slavs, because of the name itself and the main ingredients, which included pork goulash, sliced ​​potatoes, onions and chopped pieces of precooked sea cucumbers. They were all skillet fried together. The recipe for the scrapbook is described by TINRO-centre staff in the popular book "200 seafood dishes" (O. Selyuk, M. Shchadrin, Vladivostok, 1969). 

Yet, since China was closed and hostile state at that time, Japan and Korea were also inaccessible countries most of Soviet people were rather ignorant of the sea cucumbers. 

 

Post soviet time

 

Everything had changed after the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991. All borders opened up and masses of people began to travel in all directions. The fall of barriers and disintegration into 16 separate countries severely destroyed the economy of the former unified state. Many people became unemployed and had to look for ways to survive in new environments. It was the time when sea cucumber phenomenon arose. A lot of Chinese entrepreneurs of various kinds and scales entered Primorye region. Most of them were loaded with US currency in cash. They showed a keen interest in natural derivatives and sea cucumber was one of them in great demand. At once many impoverished local people get actively engaged in collection of sea cucumbers. Due to the active ban on catching sea cucumbers, its catch was absolutely illegal poaching. The methods of its processing, its clandestine sale for cash to foreign representatives, as well as the subsequent smuggling across the border into China were not legal. Added to poaching and smuggling was the rapidly spreading corruption of all branches of new government, police and customs authorities. The general degradation of statehood at that time led to an epidemic level of widespread lawlessness and criminal activity. Moreover, the previously intelligent and law-abiding citizens were forced to be involved in the sea cucumber fishing. For them, it was a matter of survival and ensuring the existence of their families in the new conditions. The demand for sea cucumber grew continuously, and Chinese buyers, competing with each other, brought the purchase price to 30 US dollars per kilogram of live weight sea cucumber. Considering that the product itself was given to the fishers by nature, while their expenses were only the cost of equipment and scuba tanks charges, their profit was over 800% (Lebedev A., 2006). One diver could earn over one thousand US dollars a day. 

The vigorous activity of the sea cucumber divers attracted attention of organized criminals, and soon they took control over sea cucumber fishery. Soon the fishing areas were  subdivided between various gangs and individual earners were “taxed” like it was in “Honghuzi” times. Those who dare to disobey were forcibly expelled from this business. Due to the intense competition between the gangs themselves, bloody showdowns arose, there were numerous victims, including lethal ones. Meantime, despite hopeless corruption, healthy law forces had been trying to cope with poaching and smuggling. There have been numerous arrests, detentions, confiscations of catches, equipment and vehicles. This forced the catchers to work at night time, in bad weather, under the ice in winter, which led to greater risks sometimes fatal. There are some claims about 5% of losses within such participants (...). It is easy for me to agree with that.  Three of my former colleagues, marine biologists and engineers died in this particular fishery. The breathless body of one of them was found at depth of 30 meters, the other died in shallow water due to the poor equipment and deckhand qualification. The third one had perished under drifting field of ice.

 

In 12 years of frantic sea cucumber poaching in the region, over 3400 tons of valuable product were landed which estimated conservatively in 600 million US dollars’ worth. The catch was varied from 45 tons at the beginning in 1992 season and reached the pick 560 tons in 1998. It dropped to 100 tons in the latest seasons 2001-2004. All such data was gathered by academic geographer A.Lebedev (2006).

To collect the data, this scientist had to collect meticulously information from the customs authorities, read Coast Guard and Border patrol reports. Also he analyzed operation of compressor stations that were charging scuba gear for the poachers, and used private informants among the direct participants of this business. Plus to this he conducted underwater monitoring of the state of sea cucumber population in personal dive gear throughout all this years in different location of the area. 

        As a result of uncontrolled poaching sea ​​cucumber production dropped sharply by 2005-2006. By this time, the statehood of the country began to strengthen, the economic situation improving, government services decriminalizing and legal entrepreneurs who had accumulated capital began to invest in aquiculture. Following the demand, sea cucumber is now the primer object for the natural restoration of the damaged population. Chinese buyers highly appreciate it for its natural quality and for the healthy environments.

The decades of the “sea cucumber rush” developed deep public understanding of the value of this object for the benthic ecology, for the possible social and economy impact for the society and left some cultural affect. New healthier government had developed controls, rules and regulations for marine aquiculture practice. It had attracted investment capital and awaken all creative institution for the further research local sea cucumber as very perspective object for the deeper studies. About dozen of sea cucumber hatcheries are built along the coast of the region, and private “Trepang museum” is open now in local capital Vladivostok. Ironically the bay of Golden Horn which is the main harbor of the city in old times was named Haishenwai, which translates as the Bay of Blue Sea Cucumber and forgotten book “Hunt for blue trepang”(1922) about Russian diver’s dream to get rich getting some popularity. Nobody is ignorant here about sea cucumber anymore.

Photo courtesy  of V.Grigoriev
Photo courtesy of A.Lukijaninov









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