Black Fish Roe: A Maritime Letter Before Winter Solstice, Pressed into Golden Festival Gold by Salt

Around the Winter Solstice, processors in Kouhu, Yunlin, bleed the black fish while they are still in the ponds. Black fish typically swim close to Taiwan's coasts from mid-to-late November through late January, with the main fishing season falling within about ten days around the Winter Solstice. Western coastal fishermen therefore call them "messenger fish": when the season arrives, they are expected to appear. ¹

30-Second Overview: Black fish roe consists of the ovaries of mature female black fish, which retain their oiliness, salty aroma, and chewiness after bleeding, salting, pressing, and drying. Wild fish runs once marked it as a temporal signifier of the New Year; today, the two-to-three-year aquaculture cycles in places like Kouhu, the cold-chain processing, and the reality of wild fishing grounds shifting northward mean that "good black fish roe" is a result co-completed by sea conditions and human hands. ^{1 2 3}

A Letter Arrives from the Sea Around the Winter Solstice

The formal Chinese scientific name for the black fish is Mugil cephalus (grey mullet), but it is commonly known as black fish. The National Cultural Memory Bank cites the Taiwan Prefecture Gazette, noting that "first-head black fish" caught before the Winter Solstice are fattier, while "return-head black fish" caught after are leaner. This fish has long brought the maritime calendar into the coastal people's dining tables and livelihoods. ⁴

Records of black fish fishing exist from before the Dutch colonial period; during the Dutch era, vessels coming to Taiwan to catch black fish were required to pay a black fish tax. Black fish roe was not a specialty later packaged into gift boxes, but a preservation method that extended the brief fish run into the New Year festivities. ⁴

Extended viewing: Western coastal fishermen drying black fish roe in a square

Western coastal fishermen drying black fish roe. Image: Lin Min-hsuan / Taiwan Panorama. This image is embedded via a public hotlink and has not been downloaded to this site.

📝 Curator's Note: The "messenger fish" is not merely a romantic moniker. Because fish runs are largely predictable, fishermen can align their boats, the wind, and their families' New Year schedule into a single calendar.

Salt Keeps the Migratory Run on Shore

Data from the Council of Agriculture breaks down the process into: harvesting ovaries from mature female fish, washing, bleeding, salting, desalting, shaping, and drying. If blood is not removed, it oxidizes and turns black; too much salt makes the ovaries too hard; uneven drying affects color and texture. ²

The salt amount is approximately 10–15% of the ovary's weight, with salting lasting about 4–5 hours. Traditional sun-drying and shade-drying take about 3–5 days. These numbers are starting points for judgment, not mechanical recipes, because maturity, ovary size, and weather change the scale in hand. ²

Extended viewing: Black fish roe with golden oily luster after salting and drying

Black fish ovaries, catalyzed by salt and time, leave an oily aroma. Image: Lin Min-hsuan / Taiwan Panorama. This image is embedded via a public hotlink and has not been downloaded to this site.

Tsai Teng-chin from Anan, Tainan, recalled early days of salted delicacies: "One oyster cake goes with a bowl of rice porridge." Black fish roe later moved closer to banquets and gift-giving, but the underlying logic remains the same: using salt to entrust perishable seafood to a longer timeline. ⁵

Kouhu's Ponds: Waiting Two or Three Years for One Winter

The processing site of brothers Zhuang Guo-xian and Zhuang Guo-sheng makes the craft of black fish roe concrete: black fish are bled in the ponds and transported under low temperatures. The extracted fish eggs must have blood and mucus scraped off before entering the process of salting, pressing, and drying. ⁵

They adjust techniques by adding cold-air drying after sun-drying and reducing salt levels. While this case does not represent all operators, it reveals the differences in a piece of black fish roe, stemming from the entire chain of ponds, transport, egg extraction, salinity, and drying environments. ^{5 6}

Extended viewing: Brothers Zhuang Guo-xian and Zhuang Guo-sheng making black fish roe at the processing site

Zhuang Guo-xian (right) and Zhuang Guo-sheng (left) at the processing site. Image: Lin Min-hsuan / Taiwan Panorama. This image is embedded via a public hotlink and has not been downloaded to this site.

Public video: TaiwanPlus Docs Taiwanese Bottarga: Farmed, Salt-Preserved, Sun-Dried. The video visits Taiwan's black fish roe aquaculture and processing sites; it is played via embedding, and the video or thumbnail has not been downloaded. If the browser or video platform restricts playback, please open from the original link. ⁷

Research on Kouhu indicates that the life cycle of farmed black fish is usually two to three years, with fish seed selection, pond environment, processing, evaluation, and marketing interlinked. Wild or farmed are not two mutually exclusive report cards. The former hints at the rarity of fish runs; the latter reminds people that stable flavors must also be patiently cultivated. ³

One Black Fish Leaves More Than Just a Slice of Roe

The Council of Agriculture lists black fish roe, black fish milt (biao), and black fish stomach (zhen) as the "Three Treasures of Black Fish": black fish roe comes from the pair of ovaries of female fish; black fish milt or black fish white is the sperm sac of male fish; black fish zhen, also called black fish tendon or black fish stomach, refers to the stomach sac. The fish body can be cooked into rice noodle soup or used in dishes, making black fish roe a peak of whole-fish utilization rather than the sole value. ⁸

In 1909, the Japanese invited black fish roe manufacturing experts from Nagasaki to Taiwan and established processing plants in Kaohsiung and Lukang. This marks a period when the modern processing industry was systematized. Earlier, coastal societies had already accumulated their own sense of time through catching black fish and preserving seafood. ⁹

In the legend of "Black Fish Paying Respect to Mazu" passed down in Qihou, Kaohsiung, fishermen and black fish agreed to stop fishing on the 15th day after the Winter Solstice, holding a sea祭 (ritual) after the fishing season ended. It is not a precise historical record, but local memory: people placed their dependence on fish runs and anxiety over overfishing into a coastal story that could be retold repeatedly. ⁹

Fishing Grounds Shifting North Make the "Messenger Fish" Harder to Wait For

Data compiled by the Fisheries Research Institute from 1966 to 2019 shows that the main catch locations of wild black fish have shifted northward year by year. In 2018 and 2019, areas north of Taichung accounted for over 95% of Taiwan's total catch. Traditional fishing grounds south of Yunlin and Chiayi thus find it harder to wait for the migrating schools. ¹

The research does not simplify the change into a single climate narrative. Resource levels, sea conditions, marine meteorology, long-term climate change, and fishing pressure may all affect the habitat, migration, and aggregation of fish schools; predicting subsequent changes in fishing grounds remains difficult at this stage. ¹

Numbers on Black Fish: Taiwan's total black fish production in 2019 was 3,597 metric tons, with a value of approximately NT$513 million; wild nearshore fishing accounted for about 59% of the value, while land-based aquaculture accounted for about 41%. This is an industry slice of that year, not a forecast for today's market or future fishing conditions. ¹

Origin and Processing Location Are Two Different Coordinates

The flavor of black fish roe relies on processing, but "where it is processed" and "where the fish eggs come from" are not the same thing. The Customs and Bureau of Customs generally determines the country of origin for goods involving materials or processing from multiple countries based on the location of the final substantial transformation; this is a criterion for trade management. ¹⁰

Therefore, when facing "Taiwan Black Fish Roe," a further question is worth asking: Does the packaging refer to the processing location, the main source of raw materials, or both? Upstream/Downstream discusses the potential information gap between the two using fish eggs as an example. This is an issue of systems and the right to know, not equivalent to declaring any product illegal. It reminds consumers to inquire about the origin of raw materials, whether wild or farmed, the processing location, and storage conditions. ¹¹

Before Slicing Thinly, the Cold Chain Takes Over

Data from the Council of Agriculture indicates that black fish roe should be stored frozen or refrigerated. After four months, fat oxidation may turn the color dark red. If not consumed immediately after cutting, it should still be sealed and kept at low temperatures. ²

Food researcher Xu Zhong said: "Ultimacy has no endpoint; one must constantly find interesting points of observation." Wild and farmed, sun-dried and cold-air-dried, scallions and fruit, do not need to be pressed into a single orthodoxy. They are different entrances to understanding the same maritime flavor. ⁵

Black fish roe is not just precious gold if wild, nor just an expensive souvenir. It presses the maritime migration, the waiting in the ponds, and the repeated flipping of hands into a slice of time that can be cut open. The fish may not arrive according to the old calendar, but people still use salt, wind, and gestures to try to keep a single migration on the tongue.

Further Reading

• Taiwan Seafood Culture: From fishing ports, aquaculture, and dining tables, learn how Taiwanese people turn the ocean into daily diet.
• Taiwan Fermented Foods and Pickling Culture: Understand how salt, time, and microbes change the Taiwanese table through preservation techniques.
• Taiwan Banquet Culture: Look back at the banquets, rituals, and shared food occasions where black fish roe resides.

References