Unloading a fresh pacific saury fishing vessel (Photo: stockfile)

The impact of catching half of Pacific saury

JAPAN
Tuesday, January 19, 2021, 06:00 (GMT + 9)

The decline in the Pacific saury (Cololabis saira) fishery continues

Last year's national catch of saury or saury decreased by almost 30% from the previous year, reaching a record low for the second year in a row. It has almost halved in Hokkaido. While it has been noted that the amount of resources is declining, the places where fishing boats are headed are changing and the port of Honshu threatens the position of "the most landings in Japan" than Nemuro and the port of Hanasaki. They have protected since 2010.

According to the Sanma Stick Net National Fisheries Cooperative (Zensanma), the total amount of saury landed throughout the country in 2020 was 29,566 tons, a decrease of 27% from the previous year and less than a tenth of the decade. from 1990 with records of more than 310,000 tons.

At the port of Hokkaido, Hanasaki decreased 47% from the previous year to 8,616 tons, and Kushiro decreased 88% to 151 tons. The total amount of landings in Hokkaido decreased by 46% to 11,613 tonnes.

Photo: National pacific saury Stick Net Fisheries Cooperative (All pacific saury)

On the other hand, in the port of Honshu, Ofunato (Iwate) decreased 3% to 6238 tonnes, and Megawa (Miyagi) increased 11% to 5060 tonnes, which was stronger than in Hokkaido. The total quantity of landings at the ports of Iwate and Miyagi prefectures is 17,137 tonnes, almost 1.5 times that of Hokkaido.

If attention is paid to the amount of landing per fishing boat. Iwate and Miyagi weigh about 29.8 tons, more than double the 13.1 tons in Hokkaido. Behind this is the change in the saury fishing ground.

The pole net fishing ban will be lifted after August, and in the first half of the fishing season, the main fishing areas will be the open sea near the port in eastern Hokkaido and the 200 water area. kairi in Russia.

Traditional Japanese fishing boat with stick nets: Most fishing boats weigh 10-20 tons and 100-200 tons. Since it is a night fishing boat that uses lights to collect fish, it is equipped with a large lighting device and a long rod hanging a net draws attention | Photo: National pacific saury Stick Net Fisheries Cooperative (All pacific saury)

In the first half of the season, the main fishing areas will be the open sea near the port in the eastern part of Hokkaido and the 200 kairi water area in Russia. However, poor fishing continues during this period. On the other hand, the catch tends to increase after the end of October, and last year, the main fishing ground was formed in the open sea, which is located about 500 km from Doto and Sanriku.

Many fishing boats landed at Sanriku ports to support the amount of landings at these ports.

Source: Asahi Shimbun Digital

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