This is the Seppu plant in Niikup operated by Nakayama Suisan Co., a local fish processing firm. It was through the courtesy of the owner of this company that we have been able to take the pictures used in this course. In fact, I wish to express my appreciation for his kindness in volunteering to demonstrate the dressing of the cherry salmon just caught on that day for our pictures. The main building was right next to the ocean and was the original old plant where various types of seafood were processed. In Agzu, you can probably use clean river water pumped up by a self-powered water pump for cleaning and dressing fish. Even though whatever you do this year is more likely to be of temporary nature, it is important that you do have plenty of running water for the operation.

The second picture from the top is the fish dressing table with overhead running water system in a small but clean processing room in a separate new building where the dressing demonstration was given. I am sure you don't have to build something like this for this year, and get by with just a pump-and-hose operation. You will see in the following pictures where you really need to have a hose when you clean the fish inside out after taking guts kidney out. When dressing the fish, it is also important that you have the right kind of knife. I am sure you have your own knife different from the ones used in Japan, but just let me show you the most common type used in dressing salmon in Japan.

This is the one commonly used throughout northern Japan in dressing fresh fish, especially salmon. The pointed tip and the width of blade make it easy for you to take gills out without damaging the fish. The question of small tools is another point that can be discussed between this and the next years, and for now you do your best with what you got. This processing room had a standard set of several types of knives of different shapes and sizes. But, for now, I am pretty sure you will have your own good idea about what to use after you will have gone through this page carefully taking a close look at the following pictures.

A small cherry salmon was used for demonstration so that you can always see the whole fish in all cutting actions. The dressing operation begins with the act of taking the gills out. The first picture shows he is cutting the part of the gills attaching them to the body of the fish. This is done by a single cutting action, and then, the entire gills are taken out. Make it sure that no remaining pieces of the gills are hanging from the body of the fish, while also making it sure you don't damage the gill covers, or any other part of the head, so that the fish looks perfectly normal and intact, even if without gills, when looked from outside.

Then, the next act is to cut the belly open. The most important point is to cut in a straight center line starting from the anus and STOP at a point directly below the foot of the pectoral fins as shown by the white allow in the picture so that enough portion is left intact to have the head and belly remain securely connected. Care must be taken not to have the cut go all the way through resulting in disjointing the lower part of the head from the body. Please see the actual length of skin and tissue that must be left in the last picture in this page, although it shows another dressing style called "headless and guts out."

This position is important because it is designed to leave enough skin and tissue connecting the belly part of the body to the head so that the head and belly will not get split and separated in handling at later packing and distribution stages. If the belly and the head come apart, the value of the dressed fish, or the salted product, it can become the reason for a price discount.

Here, you have opened the belly and took out the guts (intestines). You can see the kidney (dark substance protected by thin membrane (skin) all the way along the backbone. He is slitting it with the tip of his knife, and then scrape it off the bone using a special scraper. For this season, you can use a tea spoon.

Here is a close-up picture of what the fish now looks like inside the belly. Please note that there are some remaining bloodstained bits and pieces. These MUST be removed clean at this stage as you wash the inside of the fish with running water. Remaining blood will turn black after salting and storage seriously damaging the quality and appearance of the products.

Note the way fish is cleaned with fresh water using a hose. He is trying to keep fresh water away from the outer surface of the fish by sticking the head of the hose into the belly cavity. While it is important that you remove as much blood from the belly cavity as possible for maintaining the quality, it is also true that spraying the outer surface of the fish with fresh water will tend to discolor the fish later, thus again damaging its fine appearance.

Now, you can see the inside of the fish belly after careful cleaning and washing. This is the way it should look before you move onto the next stage of salting. Again, let me reemphasize the importance that you remove all blood from the belly cavity at this stage so that the salted fish will not have black spots which result from the oxidation of the remaining blood in the cavity.

At this point, the fish should look like this when you open the belly cavity. Note that the belly slit starts about 3 to 4 centimeters away from the neck of the fish where gill covers join the body. As I have said all the way from the beginning, if the fish are handled carefully and kept in cool place, the inside of the fish should look like this....no damages or deteriorations to the membranes that cover the rib bones.

And, as I already said, the gills are taken out so that the blood in them will not darken to damage the quality of the processed fish. This is important when you keep the heads on like this (called "Gilled and Gutted" or G&G style of dressing) When heads are cut off, another style called "Head off and Guts out," you don't have to worry about the blood.

Here, it shows the "Head off and Guts out" style of dressing. This style is often used for fresh-freezing operation, but, for this summer's ecotour, we should stick to G&G style instead. G&G is usually the style for salted salmon. Between this and the next years, we will consider other options of processing for higher value-added processing for the village of Agzu. It will certainly create more local jobs and greater aggregate income for the community.

One thing I should mention here is the stern fact that if you are freezing fish for the commercial market in Japan, the head of a salmon should be cut exactly in this fashion. The cutting angles are very important. If, for instance, you cut the fish after, and not before, the pectoral fins, in a straight-line vertical line, the value of the frozen fish will diminish dramatically, sometimes 50% less.