Ike Jime, the Japanese Slaughter Method for Tastier Fish
I fish on occasion, though at my skill level it&#x27;s probably better described as &quot;being disappointed next to water&quot;. I&#x27;m usually going for perch or bluegill. People typically throw them in a cooler of ice while still alive, or put them on a stringer, a line run through their mouth and out the gill so that can sort of still somewhat swim around and live until the fisherman is ready to go home.<p>Both of those seem pretty unpleasant to me. I tried putting them in a cooler on ice the first time and they flopped around for hours. They were still moving when I went to clean them later. If you watch videos of people cleaning fish, you&#x27;ll see they are often still moving even while the fish is being filleted. When I was a kid, I once saw someone cut the fillets off a fish and toss the &quot;carcass&quot; back in the water where it proceeded to try to swim away.<p>The last time I went fishing, I tried the first step of ike jime where you spike the brain. I used a little pocket knife and poked it between the eyes. It took a few tries to find the right spot, but once I did, I do think it was more humane. The gills flare and the fish stiffens for a second and then immediately after it has clearly shuffled off its mortal coil.<p>I don&#x27;t know if it improves the taste, but it seems kinder to me than letting it beat itself senseless in a pile of ice or flail around in the water with a line running through its throat.<p>For anyone who thinks this comment is brutal or unpleasant, I would really recommend spending some time fishing or hunting if you eat meat. It&#x27;s important to have a real tactile understanding of what it means to take an animal from the wild and turn it into food. It&#x27;s up to you to decide if you think that people <i>should or shouldn&#x27;t</i> do it, but, either way, I think it is a real learning experience to understand what that choice entails.<p>Also, I think we tend to live lives increasingly removed from the physical, tactile, natural world. Fishing is a good way to reconnect with nature and with your <i>own</i> nature as an animal, a predator that eats other animals.