The amount of saury landed in Japan is increasing, bringing some relief to Hokkaido and northeast Honshu fishermen.
Early on in the season, which opened in mid-August, Japan's saury catch was at its lowest level ever. At that time, schools of the fish were mainly in international waters, about three days from Japanese ports in Hokkaido. But to reach them in a straight line, fishing vessels had to cross through Russian waters.
Given the tense political atmosphere due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Japan’s retaliatory sanctions on Russia, many captains were nervous about making the journey – though no incidents occurred. As a result, fishing effort was low, and this was reflected in lower landings.
However, since mid-September, saury schools have drawn closer to Japan, shortening the journey to one to two days. As a result more vessels are reaching the schools and hundreds of metric tons of saury have been landed every day.
Saury volumes sold at Tokyo’s Toyosu Wholesale Market have since increased by 50 percent year-over-year. The fish are trending on the small side, mainly at 110 to 120 grams. A dozen years ago, saury of 200 grams were common, and larger saury are more prized and achieve higher prices.
From 10 October, saury began to be landed at Onahama Port, in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. This is an early arrival compared to 2021, when the first catch of saury at Onahama Port was delayed until December. That year, the amount of catch was 17 metric tons (MT), the lowest ever. But the first vessel unloading its catch at the port this year landed 39 MT at Onahama fishing port, two months earlier than last year. The fish were sold at the port in the range of JPY 575 to JPY 638 (USD 3.85 to USD 4.27, EUR 3.91 to EUR 4.33) per kilogram.
Supermarkets in Tokyo were selling saury at the end of September for around JPY 200 (USD 1.34, EUR 1.35) per fish. This is far above the price point of JPY 100 (USD 0.67, EUR 0.67) per fish that was typical before the recent decline of the stock. The cause of the decline has been attributed to overfishing and warmer water due to climate change, which is keeping saury in international waters northeast of Hokkaido longer than in the past.
Photo by Chris Loew/SeafoodSource
