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.GrigorievPhoto courtesy of A.Lukijaninov
