The day the season for catching Ise lobsters begins: A 20-something girl's life in Izu/Shimoda.

  • Shizuoka
  • Special Features
Since the season's lobster fishing ban opened in early October, I went along with the lobstermen fishing. I was invited by "Dried Fish Hoei," a store in Suzaki, to join them on their special boat!

In fact, Shizuoka Prefecture ranks in the top five in the country in terms of lobster catch, with Minami-Izu and Shimoda making up half of the prefecture's catch. Minami-Izu, Shimoda's neighbor, is famous for the Minami-Izu Ise lobster festival, but in fact, Shimoda is no less famous for its catch of lobsters.

Lobster Fishing

The lobster fishing season begins on the night of the new moon in October and continues until May of the following year. However, lobsters are nocturnal, so they hide deep among rocks except on new moon nights when there is little moonlight. Therefore, fishing is not conducted for 10 days before and after moonlit nights. Also, they are not allowed to fish on days when there are waves, so although the fishing season is open for eight months, they actually fish only about 10 days a month.

Now it's time to set sail!

At 4:00 in the morning, when it was still dark, we boarded a small boat that could barely accommodate three people and set sail. On the boat, the roles are divided up neatly: one person is in charge of the shrimp net, the other person is in charge of steering the boat and illuminating it with a flashlight, and I am in charge of the camera. I was in charge of the camera.
The net we set the day before has floats attached to it, so we retrieve the net.
A lively scene.
The net is pulled by a machine. I heard that the net is very heavy when lobsters are hanging on it like dumplings. Since it was the day when the ban on catching lobsters was lifted, lobsters were caught in abundance! The fishermen were repeatedly saying "ha ga ichii no ou" (= big, good shape).
After just one hour of fishing, we returned to the harbor to find that the sky had turned a little morning glow.

Here comes the hard part...

The hard work begins here. Removing lobsters entangled in the net.
To avoid breaking the antennae and legs of the lobsters, they are carefully removed one by one with a tool called a "key. Concentration and patience are required because the value of a lobster decreases if only one antennae or leg is broken.
This work is done by the entire fishing community. Children in the fishing town help with the lobster removal and receive lobsters in exchange for pocket money. I helped for about two hours, but it showed no sign of ending. It took them until around noon, partly because of the large number of lobsters that day.
There were not only lobsters but also turban shells, snappers, red snapper, boxfish, and a shark nearly 1.2 meters long in the net. (The picture of the shark is a bit grotesque, so I omitted it.)
A boxfish that had been caught in the net

A variety of dishes using the luxurious prawns caught in a big catch.

That evening, "Dried Fish Hoei" prepared many freshly caught dishes including lobsters!
Paella, a sumptuous dish made with an abundance of seafood, is an exquisite delicacy.
This was my first report of accompanying a lobster fishing trip!

The restaurant is owned and operated by a former fisherman, and it is precisely because of this that it is able to offer such seasonal local fish dishes. At "Dried Fish Hoei", you can try your hand at opening dried fish and buy dried and smoked fish as souvenirs. If you are in Shimoda, please visit "Dried Fish Hoei".
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