Japan’s economic sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine have complicated the two countries' cooperation in fishery management.
The seventh annual session of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC), scheduled to take place online from 28 to 30 March, was postponed until further notice due to the ongoing conflict. The current members of the NPFC include Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Taiwan, the United States, and Vanuatu, and Russia currently holds the chairmanship of the commission.
Japan’s Fisheries Agency announced on 23 March that the schedule for meeting to discuss resource management measures for saury has also been postponed, after concerns it would be difficult to hold the meeting in light of the current international situation.
The Pew Charitable Trusts, a U.S.-based NGO that has observer status at the meeting, had hoped to use the occasion to press for stricter reporting rules and monitoring of transshipment, which can sometimes be used to obscure the origin of where fish are caught. Approximately 85 percent of fish harvested in the NPFC convention area is transshipped, more than in any other regional fishery management organization. Due to the postponement of the meeting, consideration of stricter policies will have to wait.
Negotiations between Japan and Russia on the rights to catch salmon and trout have also been postponed. Based on the premise that salmon and trout belong to the country where they were born, an agreement between the governments of Russia and Japan is necessary to allow Japanese fishermen to catch these fish – even within Japan's 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
In light of this, business operators pay fishery cooperation fees to Russia in accordance to the size of the catch. Negotiations are usually held in March and April, but the date for this year's negotiations has not yet been determined.
“Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the schedule for fishing negotiations with Russia, such as the salmon and trout fishery and the Shell Island kelp fishery … has not been decided,” Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki said during a press conference on the issue. “We believe that the import volume of Russian marine products is expected to decrease, so there are concerns about the impact on fishery production, fish processing, and the consumption and distribution of marine products.”
After negotiations in 2021, the two countries agreed that Japan could catch up to 2,050 metric tons of salmon and trout in Japanese waters.
Shell Island, or Kaigarajima in Japanese, is the closest to Japan of the Haboamai islets of the disputed Northern Isles. Japan was granted exclusive permission to harvest kelp on the island, but recently Russian companies have expressed an interest in the fishery, so it is unsure if the exclusive status will continue.
Photo courtesy of GUDKOV ANDREY/Shutterstock
