Japanese squid fishing companies and processors are bracing for another poor season.
Fishing for Pacific flying squid will begin in Hokkaido in June, but Hiroshi Nonaka, managing director of the National Cooperative Association of Squid Processors told SeafoodSource that he expects this year’s catch to be even worse than last year.
According to the National Fisheries Cooperative Federation, the catch in 2017 was 53,000 metric tons (MT), a record low and 15 percent lower than in 2016. The squid catch in 2017 was just half that of 2015. The average wholesale price last year was JPY 564 (USD 5.13, EUR 4.35) per kilogram, up 80 percent from two years earlier.
Fishery scientists said at the end of May that in a three-year period, the spawning age stock has decreased by two-thirds, and the seawater temperature of the spawning ground in the East China Sea was low from January to March this year – an unfavorable condition for spawning and growth. They did note that in another area, off the coast of Kyushu, conditions were suitable for the growth of squid, and in a survey conducted in the Sea of Japan in May, the amount of the resource was greater than in the previous year.
Squid processors expect difficulty securing sufficient materials. Nonaka said that in March, his association called on the government to increase the import quota and it was granted. The Fisheries Agency set the total allowable catch at 97,000 MT, down 30 percent from the previous year to the lowest ever, but will allow a 16 percent increase in flying squid imports, to 87,000 MT.
“The problem is that there is also a shortage of squid in the countries that Japan usually imports from, such as Argentina for illex squid, America, and Peru,” Nonaka said.
Though overfishing and low water temperatures are the cause of low stocks in Japan, he said that in other areas, the effect of La Niña may be a reason.
