Two Japanese fishing villages are calling on their prefectural government to consider measures to stop the fishing operations of Russian trawlers in the Nemuro Strait.
The mayors, town councilors, and heads of local fishery cooperatives of Rausu and Betsukai, based in the Nemuro sub-prefecture of Hokkaido, are asking the Hokkaido government and Japan's Fisheries Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take action to stop the Russian trawlers.
Japanese have made similar appeals annually in recent years, complaining that the trawlers are damaging their nets and depleting local fish stocks.
Although the Hokkaido and Japanese national governments do not have the power to prevent the Russian fishing operations, the complaints have not always fallen on deaf ears. In 2020, the website of the Sakhalin-Kuril territorial management of the Federal Fisheries Service of the Russian Federation posted information for local fishing companies on ways to prevent or avoid damaging fishing gear owned by Japanese fishing companies, after the Japanese side claimed that two Russian trawlers damaged 25 of the 40 nets set up by Japanese fishermen. The website provided maps showing the location of remaining Japanese fishing gear.
Since 1988, Russian trawlers have operated in the narrow straight between the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido and the disputed Kunashiri Island, controlled by Russia. Pollock catches in the area, which exceeded 100,000 metric tons (MT) before Russian trawling began, have dwindled to 5,000 to 10,000 MT, according to the Japanese government, while stocks of Arabesque greenling, saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis), and flounder have also declined.
The entry to the fishery of Russian super-trawlers has further concerned the Japanese side, as the Russian Fishery Company is replacing aging vessels with supertrawlers. The company is planning to receive nearly a dozen of the vessels.
The first such vessel, the Turkish-built Vladimir Limanov began fishing in 2021, and the newly launched supertrawler Kapitan Vdovichenko, took a maiden cruise this September from the Admiralty shipyards in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to the Okhotsk Sea via the polar Northern Route. From 21 October, it started fishing trials in the Northern Kuriles. This vessel fishes for a wide range of species, as it contains onboard processing technology making it capable of producing fish oil and fishmeal.
Photo courtesy of The Russian Fishery Company
