Yasuhiro Sanada

Session 10, Talk 2, 20/1/16 @ 1130 hrs

In this presentation, we will take up tuna fisheries and regulations in Japan and associated issues. First, after briefly touching upon the tuna fisheries in Japan, we will deal with purse seine Pacific bluefin tuna (PBF) fishing in the Sea of Japan and Sakaiminato, the largest landing port of PBF fisheries in Japan. In doing this, we will point out that one of the reasons of the development of PBF fisheries in Sakaiminato was the resource depletion of sardine and mackerel caused by overexploitation of these species and the need for alternative fish species for commercial harvesting, and second, development of PBF purse seine fisheries caused resource depletion of this species. Third, we will take a look at the effects which may be caused by massive overexploitation by touching on the situation of pole and line and longline PBF fisheries. Fourth, we will discuss international and domestic regulatory measures and show that they are not sufficient for the conservation and restoration of this species, as most of them merely let current fisheries remain untouched except for the reduction of catches of juvenile tuna. The lack of sufficient regulations is reinforced by “regulatory capture,” in which the authorities concerned have cozy relations with large-scale fishing industry representatives who tend to prefer regulatory measures to be as lax as possible. We will conclude by stressing the importance of substantial strengthening of conservation measures by the WCPFC or trade restriction though the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).     

Contact:  Y. Sanada, Visiting Assistant Professor, Waseda University, Japan, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.