Almost no correct English information
I have been asked quite sometimes if my books on Japanese fisheries management related with sustainability are translated into English.
Now I found a way to do it, while using website in stead of publishing English books.Japan has revised fishery law for the first time in 70 years in 2018.
My books and information provided have influenced to those who legislated it with enthusiasm to know the difference of fishery management between Japan and the rest of the advanced countries, such as Northern Europe, Northern America and Oceania etc on fishery management.
I will inform you of the facts which Japan has taken. The figures show the reason why Japanese catch and landing have declined significantly. Therefore Japan needs seafood so much to import.
I believe to say that most of counties had made same kind of mistakes with fishery management some decades ago. However most of them realized and improved while spending long time and big effort. It is always the case that fishermen want to catch fish as much as possible, which is natural.
It is inevitable to make seafood sustainable for meeting world demand. Global population keeps increasing so as demand of seafood would increase accordingly. It is necessary to keep each fish stock at MSY level by 2020 which was agreed on SDGs. Japan is far from the target regrettably.
Abnormal trend of Japanese fishery production
This graph will make you image problem of Japanese fishery management clearly. Red line shows trend of world production both wild catch and aquaculture. Left figures can be referred.Blue line shows Japanese production. Right figures can be referred.
The world production reached 100 million tons in 1980s and Japanese one reached almost 12 million tons whose figure was the biggest in the world at that time.The former has reached 200 million tons in 2017 which means double figure compared with 1980s. On the other hand Japanese figure has reduced drastically to 4 million tons which is just one third compared with 1980s.
Someone who mislead explain that reduction is because of sardine fishery volume or due to 200 miles restriction set in 1977. There are some influence by these factors, however the real reason is simply because of lack of fishery management systems.
Most of Japanese fishery managements have been done by self management by fishermen. No quota allowed them to catch as much as possible. Though TAC of 8 species were set, including mackerel, Pacific saury, sardine, horse mackerel, squid, snow crab, Alaska pollack and bluefin tuna.Except for bluefin tuna, TAC is always too big against actual catch.
Therefore TAC has not functioned at all for sustainability.In addition there is no TAC on Pacific cod, herring, sand eel etc. It may be unbelievable to see that no TAC is set for such important species.
To see the projection of problem shown by World Bank
The above figure shows projection of total fish production, including wild catch and aquaculture by region, compared 2010 with 2030. Total production projected increases by 23.6%.
The surprise is that there is only one area shows minus, that is the area of Japan, minus growth 9 %. In addition the Japanese figure in 2017 has already been lower than the projected figure in 2030. The situation is getting worse.
Problem of Japanese TAC system
small mackerel caught in Japan
Main reason why situation of Japanese fishery is getting so bad comes from its fishery management compared with other countries.
What I want to describe at this website is to inform of correct Japanese fishery information, which can be quoted to sustainability of you or your country.
History repeats itself. As you know well, over fishing had been occurred so many countries. Japanese case be happened at any countries. I hope this case remind you of fishery management for each country.
I always appreciate and welcome for your information, view and advice.