Japan to Propose Saury Catch Regulations in Northern Pacific

June 8, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government plans to propose introducing saury fishing regulations in the northern Pacific at a meeting of a relevant international body in July, in response to a sharp fall in catches of the fish, informed sources said Thursday.

Japan is aiming to stop overfishing of saury by China and Taiwan, which use large fishing boats, to better manage saury resources.

At the upcoming North Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting, Japan plans to call for setting a cap on total saury catches in high seas and then allocating a catch quota to each country and region based on an estimate on saury resources in the northern Pacific, which will be calculated in spring 2019 by the NPFC's Scientific Committee, according to the sources.

Japan also hopes to launch saury catch regulations in coastal waters, the sources said.

But China is cautious about regulating saury catches as demand for fish has been increasing in the country on the back of its growing economy.

Japan proposed the introduction of a catch quota system at last year's meeting of the international fishery organization. But the overture failed to be adopted in the face of opposition from China and South Korea.

According to Japan's Fisheries Agency, total saury catches in the northern Pacific in 2017 stood at about 270,000 tons. Catches by Japan came to some 80,000 tons, down by more than two-thirds from the level 10 years ago. Jiji Press