Ikejime in action

This is in response to Dave Arnold at "Cooking Issues" blog, who gives a very detailed report on the Japanese practice of ikejime, a bleeding technique for fish. That is, it's for humans to use on fish.

In Japan, I usually see the abbreviated version, which only involves inserting a knife at the gills to cut an artery. Then, the fish is immediately moved to ice water.

These photos are from a trip to an aquaculture site at Hiburi Island near Uwajima on Shikoku Island. The fish are sea bream (madai), not to be confused with snapper. (Americans tend to call any reddish fish a snapper!)

Scroll on down to see all the shots: the harvesting, the night of the long knives (but no steel rod up the wazoo), and some fishies getting dropped in the ice bath...

Chris