Japan's proposal to limit catches of saury in international waters was not adopted at the annual meeting of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC), which ended Thursday.
Countries including China, which fishes for saury in international waters, opposed the proposal. The issue will be discussed again at the next NPFC annual meeting to be held next summer. However, the most recent meeting underscored the challenges facing international management of marine resources.
The NPFC is an international conference comprised of eight countries and territories, including Japan and China, for discussing the protection of marine resources in the North Pacific. At the annual meeting, which began Tuesday in Tokyo, Japan proposed limiting catches of saury. The plan won support from Russia, which fishes for saury mainly within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as well as from Taiwan, South Korea, the United States and Canada.
However, China and Vanuatu opposed the proposal, with the former claiming it was too early to introduce such restrictions. The implementation of new restrictions requires approval from three-quarters of NPFC member countries and territories. Yet while the condition was technically satisfied, the NPFC seeks a unanimous consensus to make restrictions more effective, and thus did not vote on the proposal at the meeting.
Saury, called sanma in Japan, migrate from international waters in the Pacific Ocean to coastal seas near Japan and Russia from summer to autumn each year. China is thought to regard Japan's proposal as unfair because it targets fishing in international waters while protecting Japanese and Russian fishing grounds.
Japan typically catches between 200,000 and 300,000 tons of saury each year. However, catches in 2017 fell to 85,000 tons, the lowest level in about 50 years. Meanwhile, Taiwan overtook Japan in saury catches in 2013, and caught 107,000 tons in 2017. China's saury catches have increased more than 20 times over the past five years. Many officials in the fishing industry believe that China and Taiwan begin fishing for saury in international waters ahead of Japan.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
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