Choshi, Fishing Port at the Mouth of the Tone River

CHOSHI Fishing Port is known for landing the largest hauls of fish in the nation, as the Daily Yomiuri newspaper reported. Supposedly this is because two ocean currents, the northbound Black Current and southbound Oyashio Current, collide just offshore resulting in plentiful plankton. The waters of the Oyashio Current form probably the richest fishery in the world owing to the extremely high nutrient content of the cold water and the very high tides (up to ten metres) in some areas - which further enhances the availability of nutrients. Where there is nutrients there are plankton and where there is plankton there is fish (and whales), and where there are fish there are flocks of seabirds and fleets of fishermen who live off this resouce. As I started my long walk along the river bank, the bridge at the back and the wind in my face, I couldn't help but notice the birds. According to Gulling in Japan, Choshi attracts East Asian birds such as the black-tailed gull, slaty-backed gull, the Vega gull, the glaucous gull, the glaucous-winged gull and the black-legged kittiwake. If my father had been here, he would have loved it! I tried to call him to describe some of the gulls, but he must have been out. I took plenty of photos instead. But some chance of photographic luck, the sun was blazing behnd me while the sky in front was dark and stormy. Perfect for capturing the essences of things, as Barthes might have remarked in his book about Japan. I walked east past all the beautiful boats with their fluttering flags towards the fish market (one of the four fish markets in Choshi, apparently.) It was all dead when I reached it at 3pm or so, but had I been here at 5am I am sure it would have been alive with the wheeling and dealing of mackerel, live eels, and red fish with big glassy, mirror-like eyes. lie in crates lined up on the floor. The aforementioned kinmetai! Fishermen the world over are superstitious folk... but they didn't seem to mind me poking around their turf taking photos. Perhaps it is a good thing I wasn't a whale activist. There might have been trouble then...

OTHER SITES ABOUT CHOSHI FROM JAPAN!

大きな地図で見る

Google Maps