The Tokyo, Japan-based National Pacific Saury Stick Net Fishery Cooperative announced the full-year saury landing statistics on 7 January, with the landings marking the third-consecutive year landings hit record lows.
Landings declined by 38 percent year-on-year, from 29,566 metric tons (MT) to 18,291 MT.
The catch landed in Hokkaido increased by 3 percent, from 11,613 MT in 2020 to 11,945 MT in 2021. On Japan’s main island of Honshu, however, the catch fell by 65 percent, from 17,953 to 6,346 MT.
This represents a reverse of the unusual situation in the previous year, when catches on Honshu exceeded those in Hokkaido. Hanasaki port of Nemuro, in the north of Hokkaido, had the highest volume, while in northeast Honshu’s Tohoku region vessels often stayed in port from October due to poor catches.
Vessels landed saury catches 1,293 times in 2021, 86 percent of the 1,505 times in 2020. The number of landings in Hokkaido rose by 18 percent, while those on Japan’s main island of Honshu fell 60 percent from the previous year.
Total landed value (wholesale at port of landing) fell 20 percent, from JPY 14.2 billion (USD 122.7 million, EUR 108.4 million) in 2020 to JPY 11.35 billion (USD 98.1 million, EUR 86.6 million) in 2021. The average value per 10 kilograms rose by 29 percent, from JPY 4,804 (USD 42.05, EUR 36.65) in 2020 to JPY 6,205 (USD 54.32, EUR 47.34) in 2021.
The trend of annual Pacific saury catch volumes has been on the decline. In the 1990s through 2009, volumes of 200,000 to 300,000 MT were the norm. This weakened to around 100,000 MT for a few years from 2015 the 2018, but has fallen now for three years running starting in 2019.
The declines are attributed to a combination of warmer water temperatures that keep the fish in more northerly international waters to the northeast of Hokkaido longer, and increased fishing pressure by Taiwanese and Chinese factory ships. South Korea, Russia, and Vanuatu also participate in the fishery at a smaller scale. Quotas have been set by agreement of the parties to the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, but these are so far in excess of the actual amount caught as to be meaningless.
Photo by Chris Loew/SeafoodSource
