Struggle over Pacific Saury

Economic growth in emerging countries has changed traditional food culture in each nation. Sea products are some of them which food businesses are focusing on, causing struggle over the share of resource in Pacific Ocean. In the meeting of North Pacific Ocean Fishery Committee held in Sapporo, Japan failed in reaching a deal on setting quota of catching Pacific saury for each country.

Pacific saury is getting one of the main targets for fishery business in North Pacific Ocean. Not only the richness as a resource there, needlessness of advanced skill makes the fishery popular for fishermen in emerging countries such as China, because Pacific saury has a habit of gathering to bright light on the sea surface. In Japan, grilled Pacific saury with salt and soy sauce has been a typical taste in the fall for centuries. The taste the fish is recently getting common in the families in China or Taiwan, along with their growing diversity of food preference.

Having suffered from decline of domestic supply of Pacific saury, caused by growing competition in North Pacific Ocean, Japanese government made a proposal of setting quota in the committee meeting with attendance of eight countries or region. Based on the situation of resource or achievement in the past, Japan proposed 242 thousand annual tons for Japan, 191 thousand tons for Taiwan and 47 tons for China. China firmly opposed it, considering its growing domestic demand. “Because China did not want to be regulated, we could not reach an agreement,” told the deputy representative of Japanese delegation, Takashi Koya.

It is questionable that the proposal of Japan has fundamentally been acceptable for China. China’s total catch of Pacific saury last year was 63 thousand tons. China argued that the resource had not been reduced so much. South Korea joined China’s argument, saying that setting quota was too early. Koya explained the proposal of Japan as a hard target to lead the negotiation.

Japan’s catch has drastically reduced in a decade, from 4.61 million tons in 2008 to 1.78 million tons last year. Schools of Pacific saury travel from the north in the spring to the south in the fall. Japanese fishermen catch them, having been fat during the travel, in the sea area around Japan. Chinese or Taiwan boats catch them in the spring before they have grown.

One strategy of Japanese government is to cooperate with Russia, with which Japan has a long history of negotiation over other kinds of fish including salmon. Japan had first ever joint research on Pacific saury with Russia this year. The result will be submitted to NPOFC meeting next year. It is still not clear, however, for Japan to be successful in building a framework with Russia to counter China or South Korea.