It's been a while. This is why

So I haven't written anything in two weeks. Partly because happenings have been a bit disjointed and I like writing about a certain topic. But mostly becaue I've been very busy. The waves have been pretty unreal, and when I'm not surfing it seems like I'm either running an errand or in Tokyo. I'm working for real now, no more sitting around the office all day, and it can take a lot out of you, so after work, surfing and dinner, I usually need some relax-time. But now I have lots to write about, starting now.

Sea Creatures Part II

I get out of school at 415, head to the ocean, and there are never any other surfers. I’m finally meeting a few of the locals but they don’t show up ‘til the sun starts to set because of their jobs. When surfing alone, a mild fear of large sea life (sharks) comes out. What doesn’t help is my local surf spot breaks really far out and there are always tons of fish. The muskrat fish, jumpers, all sorts. A foot-long albacore whizzed by my head the other day. Getting hit in the face by a fish; that’d be something.

I’ve also been seeing this dolphin. At first I couldn’t figure it out because it would do one of those parabolic dolphin-surfaces, I’d see a blowhole, but there was no dorsal fin. After some research I’ve established that such finless dolphins exist; in fact, I’ve identified it as the finless porpoise.

One day last week, when the waves were good, there were about twelve trawlers, releasing their km long nets in circles just outside the lineup. I’d curse them as their wakes would ruin another set. The fishing industry is pretty huge in Japan. Not surprising considering the amount of fish that ends up in my school lunch. Fish seems nearly as common as land-meat, which they also eat lots of. Being vegetarian here would be very difficult.

While on the topic of food, a quick aside into strange seafood I’ve eaten: the bitter brains of a foot long prawn. “There’s always a bitter aftertaste with brains” – other teachers. I also ate my first whole anchovy yesterday. A noodle salad with minnows and whole shrimp, scores of eyeballs pleading with me. I also managed to almost enjoy a whole fish, with the skin on, too. Ok, so back to our mammalian sea friends, queue the suffering.

Tens of thousands are caught every year as by-product. Japanese fisheries report on average, 23,000 dolphin mortalities a year. The Japanese government also allows this coastal town to have a mass dolphin culling, a few thousand every year. The parts that bother me more is that this action becomes lucrative less for the meat than for the dolphins caught and sold to aquariums. Its thought most of the meat is sold to poorer countries which need the protein for little profit. The other problem I have is that dolphins are blamed for declining coastal fish populations while overfishing seems a distinct possibiity. Apparently this factors into the culling quite a bit, too and the cruel (maybe vengeful) ways in which it's done (knives, chainsaws). There's obv. the other side of the issue, too, but I think animal cruelty really should be avoided. Endangering the existence of animal species take precedence but no ocean dolphins are endangered to my knowledge. I think dolphins are pretty abundant, except for those Chinese river dolphins who are on the way out.

Another controversy, whales are still hunted in Japan. Whales are so amazing, it would be so terrible for any species to disappear. A few species are on the brink of extinction and others are endangered. Japanese whalers take about 1,000 a year for 'scientific purposes'. They do their tests and then sell the meat. International whaling seems pretty regulated, avoiding the highly at-risk populations, but I say better safe than sorry.

I’ve heard that people in sparsely populated areas (rural farmers/fisherman) have more voting power than the average city citizen. Politicians avoid upsetting the rural/traditional groups, allowing them to practice in the name of tradition. This leads to what seems too many and often unnecessary public works projects in rural areas. Really I don't know too much about politics and whatnot over here but I'm working on that. I'm also gonna start Moby Dick soon.