Iwate Prefecture’s autumn salmon catch, known as the largest in Honshu, is down about 40 percent from autumn last year, it has been learned.
Experts point to two major factors behind the sharp drop. One is damage to fixed salmon nets near the shore due to the 11 March tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The other is a continuous long-term decline in the number of salmon returning to the prefecture each year.
It is likely the prefecture’s total salmon haul for 2011 will fall below that of 2010, which was the lowest since hatching and releasing operations were launched in the prefecture in the mid-1970s.
According to the prefectural government’s Fisheries Industry Promotion Department, the number of salmon caught in the autumn salmon fishing season, which began in September, reached about 647,000 as of 10 November, down 37 percent from the same period last year.
