SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE
SUPREME SCALLOPS
HOKKAIDO: HOME TO THE KING OF SHELLFISH
Hokkaido’s sustainably cultivated scallops are rigorously vetted for enjoyment in a variety of dining settings
DOGYOREN
Hokkaido produces around 80% of Japan’s hotate (scallops) in a variety of forms, from raw and fresh in the shell, tender and sweet, to carefully preserved and brimming with umami. This island ships out hundreds of thousands of tons of the shellfish every year. Evidence of scallop consumption here stretches back around 5,000 years. Once just gathered, they are now sustainably farmed.
Scallops are generally regarded as the healthiest of seafoods, and are often called the “king of shellfish” because they are rich in nutrients, including iron, vitamin B12, and amino acids glycine and taurine. The glycine aids in sleep, taurine provides an energy boost, while iron speeds oxygen to the body and vitamin B12 helps it regenerate red blood cells. Amino acids are the source of all that umami flavor. They’re also low in fat and high in protein.
According to industry expert Yoshihisa Kawasaki, director at the Hokkaido Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations (Dogyoren), Japan’s primary production areas are in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Nemuro Strait to the north, the Sea of Japan to the west and Funka Bay in the south. Three powerful sea currents — the Soya, Tsushima and Tsugaru — sweep in plankton and other small sea organisms for the scallops to feast on.
Kawasaki said: “Two methods are used to raise scallops — seabed ranching and dredge cultivation and hanging cultivation. The first is primarily used in the Sea of Okhotsk, while the second is followed in Funka Bay and the Sea of Japan.”
Prior to that, he said, juvenile scallops are gathered from early spring to summer.
“They’re just 3 to 5 millimeters in size at the time. After being nurtured for about a year, they reach 35 to 40 millimeters by April or so of the following year.”
This is when the great divide occurs.
“The ones cultivated in Funka Bay are hung from ropes and raised until they reach a size suitable for harvest. Then they are shipped from December to around June of the following year,” Kawasaki explained. “The ones in the Sea of Japan area are transported to the Sea of Okhotsk and the Nemuro Strait by truck and released into the sea and harvested about three or four years later.”
Innovative practices
This unique fishing practice, which involves traversing coastlines across Hokkaido, is one of the distinctive features of Hokkaido’s scallop fishery. It is a rare example of how the risks and economic burden can be shared by multiple associations within the region.
“The associations also share information from seedling collection to landing, and handle consistent resource management together,” Kawasaki explained. “Many samples are taken of the young scallops that arrive in the Sea of Okhotsk, and data is collected on how many of each association’s scallops are alive, how many are diseased, and so on. Through this cumulative data, we have developed technology that has boosted survival rates. No other country in the world has such resource management.”
He also noted that each association understands how many scallops are left in its sea zone and how many can be gathered on a given day, making it easy to predict and plan. This cultivation cycle and method has been in use for around five decades.
Harvest seasons and hauls also vary by region. Whereas the Sea of Okhotsk and Nemuro Strait produce about 300,000 tons of scallops between spring and winter, Funka Bay and the Sea of Japan offer up around 50,000 tons of these prized shellfish between winter and spring.
According to Kawasaki, a crucial difference between scallops harvested in the U.S. and those gathered in Hokkaido is the operational procedures.
“In the United States, ships go out to sea and harvest scallops over several days,” he said. “In Hokkaido, ships leave in the morning, gather the scallops, and return the same day. Processors basically finish their initial processing that same day.” This streamlined process is one of the key reasons Hokkaido scallops are renowned for best preserving their freshness.
DOGYOREN
Flavor spectrum
These kings of shellfish are processed in various ways to create a spectrum of flavors suitable for various dishes. “Hokkaido scallops are typically either flash-frozen, dried or boiled,” Kawasaki explained.
He said that dried scallops are the most popular souvenir and are packed with flavor. The three-step process to produce them takes nearly a month. “First they’re cooked once in a steam boil, and their shells, mantles and viscera are removed, leaving only the scallops’ adductor muscles, which are boiled again. After that, they’re slowly dried under strictly controlled temperature and humidity.” This reduces their water content to just 16%, giving them a long shelf life.
“While dried scallops are familiar to customers in Asia, many customers in the West do not know how to eat them,” Kawasaki observed, “so we provide recipes and other information on our website.”
Boiled scallops are frozen after boiling. “The appeal is that you can enjoy not only the adductor muscle, but also the strings and eggs in their entirety,” he said. These parts, however, are rarely exported.
Another technique is to flash-freeze the adductor muscles (tamarei), a process that demonstrates just how carefully these shellfish are handled. “The scallops are transported to the processing plant on the same day they are landed,” Kawasaki explained. “The shells are removed by hand, and then the scallops are flash-frozen in a tunnel freezer for about 20 minutes before being shipped. After thawing, they can be eaten raw.
“About 20,000 tons are produced annually, and half of that is exported to the U.S., Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and so on,” he continued. “Most are marketed to the food service industry, such as restaurants and hotels, but some are also sold wholesale to retail stores for general consumers.”
By unifying the standard for the edible parts of these shellfish across Hokkaido rather than store by store over the past three or four decades, Kawasaki added, they have been working to deliver stable, high-quality scallops whose value is easy for consumers to see. “Middlemen say that as long as it’s from Hokkaido, it doesn’t matter what store it’s from,” he remarked.
DOGYOREN
Rigorous safety protocols
A prime concern with any food is safety, particularly if it may be eaten raw. According to Kawasaki, Hokkaido scallops rate highly in that regard both domestically and globally.
“Since they’re bivalve mollusks, they can harbor shellfish poisoning, so Hokkaido’s 22 marine districts must submit samples to a testing agency at least once a week during harvest seasons, and permission to harvest them is granted only after safety is confirmed,” he said.
When they’re distributed, a safety stamp is affixed to the product so that data on purchase, processing and distribution can be tracked. This only applies to products made from Hokkaido scallops and packed by Hokkaido processors. If shellfish contamination is detected during processing, the response depends on the toxin level. For low levels, the production of scallop products such as tamarei is allowed with the digestive gland removed. If high levels are present, all production is halted. If the presence of toxins is reported after distribution, the batches affected are quickly tracked and recalled.
“The comprehensive tracking system and rules not only ensure safety, they also preserve resources by narrowing down the items that are recalled and discarded,” Kawasaki noted. “There is also a certification system for processing the scallops, and the safety management system for all this has been in place since the 1980s.”
All participants in the Hokkaido scallop fishery, including processors and retailers, are united in their commitment to safety standards and engage in ongoing efforts to improve these standards. Consequently, their scallops have gained recognition as some of the finest marine products globally.
