Every weekday at 6 pm, CBC Newfoundland airs a program called The Broadcast. (The News at Six doesn’t come on until 6:30.) The Broadcast is all about fishing and the ocean. Today’s show featured an interview with a specialist in phytoplankton. Earlier this week, there was a report about the harvesting of sea cucumbers, which has become a charged issue here.
The price paid to sea cucumber harvesters at the wharf by members of the Association of Seafood Producers (the companies that process the catch) is calculated based on the weight of the catch, reduced by 23% to account for the water content of the sea cucumbers. But apparently the Producers have begun to use a higher percentage, which reduces the overall amount paid to the harvesters. The original percentage was agreed upon in negotiations with DFO (the Department of Fisheries and Oceans), so I’m not quite sure why it has changed. Apparently, the harvesters aren’t sure either, and have stopped harvesting in protest. The sea cucumber market is at a standstill!
If it weren’t for The Broadcast, I would have no idea that this is happening. And now that I live in Newfoundland, it seems important to know these things. But I have to confess that, the first few times I heard The Broadcast, I felt like I was listening to a Monty Python episode. The life cycle of the northern shortfin squid? Does it have anything to do with the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? (Apologies to anyone who hasn’t memorized most of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.)
But now, like so many new things here, The Broadcast no longer seems alien. In fact, it has become one of my favourite radio shows. It provides context within which to understand my own experiences and reinforces my sense of place – that I live on an island in the North Atlantic with fishing at the core of its identity. Although most of the people I meet are not fishers or harvesters, they are closely connected to someone who is, or was.
And so I think I’ll catch up on some past episodes of The Broadcast. Shall I start with the episode about west coast capelin vs east coast capelin and the research involved? Or the DFOs new surveillance planes? Actually, I think I’ll start with an episode from last March, marking the 70th anniversary of The Broadcast by looking back at its early days. It will be fascinating, I’m sure!
So who eats Sea Cucumbers? And how are they cooked??
They are eaten in China and Japan, and other Asian countries primarily, but not solely. They apparently don’t have much taste, so they tend to be cooked in ways that allow them to absorb flavours from other things, like braising. But they are highly nutritious. They are often dried and then rehydrated during cooking. Here’s an excerpt from wikipedia: “In Japan, sea cucumber is also eaten raw, as sashimi or sunomono, and its intestine is also eaten as konowata, which is salted and fermented food (a variety of shiokara). The dried ovary of sea cucumber is also eaten, which is called konoko (このこ) or kuchiko (くちこ).” The Japanese can turn almost anything into food.
I look at it and think it’s disgusting. But really, is it anymore disgusting than the things we are accustomed to eating? For sure, it’s no worse than squid.
Actually, it sounds a lot like tofu in some ways 🙂
Yes it does. Except tofu was never alive.