The saury catch in Japan is likely to be bad again this autumn because of rising sea temperatures that have kept the fish, which prefer cold water, away from waters close to Japan, on top of an increase in catches in China and Taiwan.
The wholesale price -- which represent the average price -- at Toyosu Market of fresh saury from Hokkaido and other areas was 1,728 yen per kilogram on Tuesday, about 1.8 times the price in the same period last year, and about 3.6 times the price in 2018.
Global debates on resource management have been stalled due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, and it is feared the poor saury catch will be prolonged.
According to preliminary data from the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, the saury catch in 2019 was a record low of 45,800 tons. The figure is less than 10% of the 1958 peak of 575,000 tons, and the haul is likely to fall further this year.
The Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency estimates the volume of saury caught near Japan will fall below the previous year's amount.
More sardines have also been coming into fishing grounds near Japan, and saury may have been driven offshore due to a scramble for zooplankton, the agency said.
Some fishermen in Hokkaido, which boasts a big saury catch, are giving up on fishing in waters near Japan and have begun fishing on the high seas in the North Pacific in search of a shoal of fish offshore. However, the fish would take days to catch and lose their freshness, according to an intermediate wholesaler at the Toyosu Market in Tokyo.
In addition to Japan, China and Taiwan whose main fishing grounds are on the high seas, are trying to manage their resources internationally due to sluggish catches. In June, eight countries and regions including Japan, China and Taiwan postponed a scheduled meeting of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC) in Sapporo due to the pandemic. It is feared stalled discussions on resource management will make the future of saury fishing more difficult.
The high price of saury is expected to continue for the time being due to poor catches.
Major supermarkets in Tokyo are selling fish for between 400 yen and 500 yen a piece.
"It's between 100 yen and 200 yen when it's a good catch. So it's obviously expensive," a manager of one of the leading supermarkets in Tokyo said.
A Tokyo fish shop said, "Many of them are rather small and don't have much fat."
The high saury price will be a blow to retailers that expect high consumption from people staying home amid the pandemic.
Some shops sell a variety of blue-backed fish such as horse mackerel and sardines, but none of them "sells as well as saury as the fish is one of the most popular autumn delicacies," a manager of a supermarket in the Tokyo metropolitan area said.
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