The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 14 | Issue 15 | Number 9 | Article ID 4935 | Aug 01, 2016

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Facing Extinction: Can the Pacific Bluefin Tuna be Saved?

Rob Gilhooly

Stocks of Pacific Bluefin tuna continue todecline to dangerous levels, with figurespublished in an International ScientificCommittee report in April estimating thatspawning stock levels are now less than threepercent of their unfished levels. In line withinternational recommendations, Japan, whichconsumes 80 percent of the world's tuna, hasimplemented measures to counter the trend.However, some experts question their efficacy,and warn that, if current catch levels continue,Bluefin may well be a leading topic ofdiscussion at the Convention on InternationalTrade in Endangered Species of Wild Faunaand Flora (CITES) when members meet inJohannesburg later this year,.

Keywords: Japan, fisheries, Pacific, Bluefin,tuna, overfishing, stocks, farming, aquaculture,sushi, sashimi, CITES, extinction

Buyers look through frozen tuna on sale atthe fish market in Tokyo’s Tsukiji district.In 2013, Japanese sushi restaurant chainowner Kiyoshi Kimura paid $1.76 millionat a New Year’s auction at Tsukiji for a222-kg Bluefin tuna, which was rarely seenin Japanese restaurants until the 1970s,

after which it became a luxury itemnicknamed “black diamond.” Photo: RobGihooly.

In 2014, the Internat ional Union forConservation of Nature reported that thespawning stock biomass (SSB) of PacificBluefin tuna in 2012 was just 4.2 percent of“unfished” levels – a theoretical calculationthrough simulations of a time when there wasno commercial exploitation of tuna (oftenreferred to as “virgin spawning biomass or“B0”), thought roughly to be around 1900.

Indeed, in late 2014, the IUCN moved PacificBluefin into the “vulnerable” category on itsred list, which is reserved for species facing“high risk of extinction.” 1

In April 2016, however, the InternationalScientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-likeSpecies in the North Pacific Ocean2 published adraft of its latest stock assessment, stating thatthe spawning stocks were now 2.6 percent ofunfished levels3, which are estimated to haveonce been in excess of 600,000 tons. (see figure1)

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Figure 1: Total biomass and spawningstock biomass of Pacific bluefin tuna.Adapted from Western and Central PacificFisheries Commission data.

Moreover, a downward revision of the 2012figures, from the 26,324 tons reported in 2014to 13,795 tons in April's provisional report,meant spawning stocks four years ago were infact just shy of 50 percent lower than originallythought.

According to the report, the model used toperform the assessment, which was releasedahead of the Inter-American Tropical TunaCommission (IATTC) science meeting in LaJolla, California commencing June 20, 2016,was “substantially improved” over that used inprevious assessments, making the figures allthe more alarming, experts say.

“The assessment shows that the impact ofoverfishing is even greater than previouslyanticipated ... (so) the population is even moredepleted than previously thought,” saysAmanda Nickson, director of global tunaconservation for the Pew Charitable Trusts,adding that the new figures “seriouslyjeopardized the chance of a populationrecovery” for Bluefin.

Japan is responsible for 80% of global tunac o n s u m p t i o n , a c c o r d i n g t o W W Festimates.4 Adult Bluefin can grow to weigh inexcess of 450 kilograms and travel thousandsof miles in ordinary migrations. The fish,commonly known in Japan as kuro-maguro orhon-maguro, is especially prized as sushi andsashimi and brings very high prices, close to$400 per pound, in Japanese markets. It hasbeen called “the million dollar fish”5 due to thehigh prices it has been known to fetch duringauctions at Tokyo Tsukiji market.

Overfishing and the Impact on LocalFishing Communities

Some off icials believe that measuresimplemented in recent years have slowed thepopulation decline. Others disagree, statingthat overfishing continues unabated, especiallyin Japan. This has resulted in a level of“recruitment” (new fish entering thepopulation) in 2014 that, at 3.69 million fish, ismore than seven times lower than a decadeearlier and the second lowest since officialrecords began in 1952.6

Katsukawa Toshio, a fisheries expert at TokyoUniversity of Marine Science and Technology,believes the Bluefin may well be listed on theConvention on International Trade inEndangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES) when members meet in Johannesburglater this year.

“Overfishing has led to a massive depletion ofstocks,” Katsukawa says.. “If the currentsituation continues, the Pacific Bluefin could befacing extinction in the very near future.”

Reports from local fisheries around Japanwould seem to support his claim.

Catch data from Katsumoto, the main port onIki Island in Nagasaki Prefecture, shows thatwhile some 358 tons of Bluefin were unloadedthere by the island’s 400 ippon-zuri (single rodand line) fishermen in 2005, they brought homejust 23 tons in 2014.

Nishi Kanji pulls out a bluefin tuna fromthe waters of Iki Island, Nagasaki

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Prefecture in April 2009. Catches ofBluefin in Iki have fallen from 358 tonsunloaded at Katsumoto in 2005 to just 23tons in 2014, forcing Nishi to quit rod andline tuna fishing. Photo Rob Gihooly

“There are simply no tuna to catch,” says localfisherman Nishi Kanji, whose front room isdecorated with commemorative photos of adozen of the 200-plus-kg Bluefin he has caught.“You rarely see that size anymore – the last bigtuna I caught was nine years ago. It’s not solong ago that you could bring home 20 or 30tuna in a day. Now you’re lucky to land one.”

The situation is so dire that Nishi has packed intuna fishing in favor of work aboard long-linevessels that fish in the waters off Ashibe port inIki for kue, or grouper kelp.

“There’s no work (in tuna fishing) anymore,” hesays. “Some of the younger (tuna) fishermenhave already quit.”

It's a familiar trend throughout Japan. Morethan 230 long-line boats operating off the coastof the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecturelanded 64 tons of Bluefin in 2014, comparedwith 439 tons a decade earlier, according tolocal fisheries official Naka Tatsumi. Overalltuna catch, meanwhile, was up around 14percent over the same period, though still down30 percent compared with a decade earlier.

“While data suggests a glimmer of hope fortuna overall, that certainly can’t be said forBluefin,” Naka says. “They get snapped up onthe Sea of Japan before they are given thechance to mature fully. If fishermen there couldwait a little longer, I think we’d all be able tocatch bigger Bluefin once more.”

Many fishermen in the Aomori Prefecturecoastal town of Oma, well known as Japan'sBluefin Mecca, are also struggling to stayafloat. “If you were to go by the TV footage of

the monster Bluefin being hauled out of thesea, you'd get the impression that Oma isblessed with huge stocks,” local fishermanNoto Katsuo recently told Wedge magazine, inreference to special programs aired on tunafishing, particularly at New Year.7 “But most ofmy colleagues are blighted by poor catches andfacing the very real possibility of going out ofbusiness.”

Purse Seiners on the Spawning Ground

In his Tokyo office, fisheries researcherKatsukawa uses color-coded charts to explainjust how critical the situation has become.Japan, he explains, has two spawning grounds— one in the Sea of Japan, the other offOkinawa. The fish that traditionally havegathered there have one crucial difference.

The former, he explains, are young parents thatspawn about five times, but, after attaining abody length of about two meters, migratesouthwest to the breeding grounds of Okinawa,where spawners are older and larger. However,the data available make clear that this patternchanged “dramatically” after 2004, he says.

By examining distribution maps for bothgrounds, Katsukawa concluded that newrecruits were no longer arriving at thewesternmost spawning grounds and only theolder adults remained.

That change coincided with a notable shift infishing practices by some of the 66 purse seinevessels operating in Japan’s waters,8 whichrelocated away from the Pacific, where Bluefinwere becoming increasingly scarce, and over tothe Sea of Japan in the summer months. Otherpurse seiners that had previously netted rapidlydepleting stocks of mackerel, herring andsardines also joined them.

The target of these vessels, many of which areoperated by affiliates of Japan's big twofisheries companies, Maruha Nichiro andNippon Suisan Kaisha (NISSUI), including

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TAIYO A&F and Kyowa Suisan,9 was the Bluefinspawning grounds that stretch from offIshikawa’s Noto Peninsula and spreadwestward just beyond the Oki Islands inShimane Prefecture. Even when stocks areseriously depleted, tuna make their way therein the spawning season in vast schools, theirmovements detected by the purse seiner’scutting-edge sonar systems, experts say.

Figure 2: Annual retained catches ofPacific bluefin tuna reported by ISCmembers in the North Pacific Ocean.Courtesy of ISC.

“It’s a specific place with favorable spawningconditions that is known to the purse seiners,”says Sakaguchi I sao , a professor o fenvironmental governance at GakushuinUniversity and an expert in the science ofBluefin tuna. “Purse seiners go to those areasat the exact moment of spawning, with theirmassive nets at the ready. It’s easy.”

Fishermen cut open the fish and remove theeggs, before selling them to outfits who processthem into meal for fish farms, experts say.

Those Bluefin that manage to escape migratetoward Nagasaki, known as an importantnursery for Bluefin juveniles, which also swimup from Okinawa, Sakaguchi says. There purseseiners, along with trollers and, to a lesserdegree, coastal nets, strike again — a practicethat started around 30 years ago but intensifiedin the mid-1990s, he adds.

In the Pacific Ocean, nearly 70 percent ofBluefin are harvested before reaching one yearof age and only 1.2 percent is aged 4 or above.As it is believed that Bluefin start spawning atage 3 and that all have reached maturity by age5, experts estimate that over 96 percent ofBluefin caught in Japan are taken from thewater before they can reproduce. “If theyhadn’t done this, then probably the stockscould have stayed at a healthy level forfishermen to continue catching Bluefin in thePacific,” Sakaguchi says.

Regulatory Reluctance

Japan has shown a reluctance to act, but lastyear it introduced new regulations set by theWestern and Central Pacific FisheriesCommission, an international body thatmonitors most of the western Pacific.

Starting January 2015, allowable catches ofBluefin weighing less than 30 kilograms werereduced to 50 percent of the catch averagebetween 2002 and 2004 — or 4,007 tons.Around half (2,000 tons) was allocated to purseseiners. It also called for a limit on catches ofBluefin weighing more than 30 kilograms to the2002-04 average, equating to a quota of 4,882tons10, though in this instance the restriction isvoluntary, experts say.

However, Katsukawa says calls for tighterregulations on fishing in the spawning groundsfell on deaf ears, much like the calls for Japanto re-evaluate its annual “scientific whaling”expeditions in the Antarctic.

The regulations that were implemented werenothing more than “rhetoric,” he says. “Theyare using expressions like ‘cut in half’ to givethe impression that strict action is being taken,but the catch base period being usedrepresents a time when there was double theamount of tuna.”

What’s more, the new quota for fish weighingless than 30 kilograms is “pointless,” because it

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“cannot be reached no matter how hard thefishermen try,” he adds.

To demonstrate his point, Katsukawa points toofficial data relating to current regional catchquotas and the actual volume being caught. Forthe western Kyushu block, which includes IkiIsland, a catch quota of 1,269 tons has been setfor an 18-month period starting January 2015.The first 10 months of that period yielded just159 tons and as of May 30, 2016, 681 tons hadbeen reported. 11

Katsukawa says this is the outcome ofplummeting resources in the Pacific, concernsabout which he has voiced for more than adecade.

“Those concerns were ignored,” he says. “Itwas only since the Bluefin faced extinction thatt h e n e e d f o r r e g u l a t i o n s h a s b e e nacknowledged. It’s like idly chatting about whatshould be done in the case of a fire while thefire is already raging around you.”

The stated aim of restrictions set by the JapanFisheries Agency was to increase spawningstock levels to the “historical” median, or 6.7percent of unfished stock volume, by 2024, afigure three times lower than the 20 percentproposed by the United States.

Miyahara Masanori, who heads the FisheriesResearch Agency, told reporters at a briefing inJuly 2015 that domestic fishermen wouldeffectively be forced to reduce their catches tozero if the U.S. proposal was adopted and,“worse still, face the danger of being corneredinto artificial fishing bans.” 12

According to Sakaguchi, the normal benchmarkof stock management is 20 percent of spawningstocks. As a management standard, if stocksfall below this level, a strict catch reductionshould be implemented, he says. Generally,when stocks fall below 10 percent, they areconsidered to have collapsed, and because thishas been the case with Bluefin for so long,

complete cessation of fishing would be the onlyway to ensure recovery, he adds.

Waseda University researcher Sanada Yasuhirocalls Japan’s proposed measures “woefullyinadequate” and highly unlikely to bring abouta recovery of the depleted stocks.

“Even though the stocks have been sodecimated, I believe the U.S. target of 20percent is realistic,” Sanada says, adding thatJapan’s high tuna consumption (over 80percent of the world’s total, according to theWWF13) and catch share (63 percent of globalharvests) means Japan has an obligation toregulate. “Japan says its measures aiming toincrease the present spawning stock to thehistorical median from the period 1952 to 2012,are more realistic, but tuna fishing was goingon well before 1950, when the populationwould have been significantly bigger.”

Indeed, research undertaken by the NationalResearch Institute of Far Seas Fisheries inShizuoka Prefecture revealed substantial tunafishing in Japan dating back to the late 19thcentury.14 This peaked in the prewar years,with one graph revealing catches of more than85,000 tons in 1939 alone.

Yet, some experts argue that the mostsignificant data starts from the 1970s, whenBluefin first gained popularity with Japaneseconsumers. “In the 1960s, no one wantedBluefin,” writes Svati Kirsten Narula in theAtlantic. “Japan fished for it, but few peoplethere liked the Bluefin's bloody, fatty meat.”15

Japan’s Fisheries Agency Rejects Science-Based Strategies

Jamie Gibbon, a senior researcher in the GlobalTuna Conservation Group of the Pew CharitableTrusts, agrees with Sanada’s assessment,saying that Japan’s measures won’t result in a“meaningful improvement under the water.”

However, he adds, “all tuna management”

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should now move away from yearly quotasetting, which takes up a lot of time throughlengthy negotiation and results in quotas andcatch limits “that don’t reflect the bestavailable science.”

Fisherman weigh Bluefin tuna landed atOma in Aomori Prefecture. Oma is knownas Japan’s Bluefin mecca, though likemany coastal fishing towns around Japanwhere coastal tuna fishing is prominent,tonnage of tuna landed has plummeted inrecent years as stocks of bluefin havefallen to critical levels. Photo Rob Gihooly

An example of a discussion that could drag onfor some time is an item on the agenda for the12th regular session of the WCPFC NorthernCommittee, to be held in Fukuoka in lateAugust. Then, WCPFC members will discuss apossible “emergency rule” to be implemented“if appropriate” and based on the 2016 stockassessment conducted by the ISC.1 6 Anemergency rule is normally invoked when aresource is seen to have collapsed, as indicatedby an extremely low level of catch. In such aninstance, a case can be argued for a temporarymoratorium on fishing and/or reducing catchesfor several years. It was at last years' WCPFCmeeting that members first agreed thatemergency measures should be implemented inthe case of Bluefin catch numbers falling toextremely low levels.

During the 78th Resource ManagementSubcommittee of the Fisheries Policy Councilon July 13, however, JFA's Ota Shingo saidJapan would only consider such an emergencyrule “appropriate” if there were an “abnormalsituation” whereby extremely low recruitmentlevels of Bluef in continued for threeconsecutive years. Only then would such acritical situation be considered a condition forinvoking the emergency rule, Ota said.17

Official data reveals that Bluefin recruitmentvolume fluctuates from year to year, but lowlevels (i.e. levels below 4.5 million fish) haveonly once been recorded in two consecutiveyears – in 1992 (4.56 million) and 1993 (4.37million), after which stocks recovered, Otaadded.

Fisheries researchers believe this is simply adelaying tactic by the influential Japanesefisheries agency. “The recruitment of PacificBluefin tuna has never been low for threeconsecutive years, so it means they won't doanything to conserve this species,” saysWaseda's Sanada. “Some Japanese fisheriesscientists closely tied with the Fisheries Agencyallege that the amount of adult fish has little towith the stock status as it is the oceanenvironment that determines recruitmentnumbers. So, even if the number of adult fishdropped to the historically low level, (theybelieve) it doesn't mean that it is necessary toconserve adult fish.”

Gibbon believes the time is ripe for Bluefin tomove toward longer-term “harvest strategies,”where a set of rules that are pre-agreed by allmembers of the WCPFC allow scientificinformation to be fed into those rules todetermine a catch limit.

“There were attempts during the 2015 WCPFCNorthern Committee meeting (in Sapporo) tostart this process … with the U.S. suggesting a20 percent recovery goal over 10 to 15 years,”says Gibbon, whose organization believes thatthe complete cessation of netting of Bluefin

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weighing under 20 kg in the Pacific could leadto a 400 percent increase in stocks within fiveyears.18 “We were really disappointed that evenbefore the meeting started Miyahara indicatedthat Japan was not willing to even enter thediscussion about these long-term managementmeasures.”

Experts such as Sakaguchi say data-based logicis often in short supply when it comes to claimsby Japan’s leading fisheries body. The FisheriesAgency claims that there is no scientificevidence connecting purse seine fishing ofspawning stocks with a detrimental impact onrecruitment, adding that low recruit numbersare due to unfavorable environmental factorssuch as rising ocean temperatures.

Sakaguchi says he has examined all relevantrecords and scientific papers from theInternational Scientific Committee, but“couldn’t find a single statement” to supportsuch views.

“The ISC has never taken such a stance (thatfishing of spawners doesn’t damage Bluefinstocks) because it has never specificallyanalyzed that impact,” he says.

Sakaguchi says that to perform the requiredmultiple factor regressive analysis to show thestipulated relationship “is easy” and was, infact, undertaken by a group of Japaneseresearchers in the 1990s — the results of whichare in direct conflict with the FisheriesAgency’s claims.

“Nonetheless, the Fisheries Agency made itsclaim without ever undertaking such basicanalysis,” says Sakaguchi, who also claims tohave uncovered examples where the FisheriesAgency has deliberately “disguised” datapresented in the Japanese Diet that sought todownplay the impact of purse seine catches ofBluefin spawners. “From a scientif icperspective, that is beyond absurd. All theresearchers at the Fisheries Research Agencyknow this, but cannot say so for fear of

punishment.”

Waseda's Sanada agrees, adding: “The JFAdoesn't conduct scenario analysis because if itdid, concrete evidence would emerge to provethat spawning stock regulations are inevitable.And that's the last thing they want.”

Pew’s Gibbon says the most worrisome elementof the Fisheries Agency’s argument is that itmeans they are effectively absolvingthemselves of the need to manage thecapturing of adults. Gibbon calls this a “riskybusiness” for a fishery that’s only at 2.6percent of its historical high.

Collusion and Short-Term Profits

The Fisheries Agency’s regulation phobia isdeep-rooted, dating back to a time whenfishermen freely exploited marine resources farand wide, according to Tokyo University ofMarine Science and Technology’s Katsukawa.

From the 1970s, various regional andinternational mandates curtailed such forays,and Japan set out on a mission to object to anykind of regulations “in order to protect itsvested interests,” Katsukawa says.

“It has continued to object to protect fisheries’short-term profits,” he says. “This is whyJapanese fisheries-related entities and theFisheries Agency’s basic mentality is to objectto regulations on Bluefin and view allenvironmental activists as the bad guys.”

Experts say the lack of meaningful change isalso down to deep-rooted ties betweenFisheries Agency officials and the three maincompanies and their subsidiaries operating themajority of the Bluefin-targeting purse seineliners.

“One reason the government won’t acceptmeaningful proposals for change is thatJapanese bureaucrats never admit failure,”Sanada says. “Another reason is their ties to

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the purse seine industry — so-called amakudari(the practice of providing retired ministryofficials with lucrative jobs in private firms andquasi-government entities).”

Sakaguchi gives examples of this goldenparachuting, pointing to one CabinetSecretariat document dated Sept. 18,201519 showing that former director of theJFA's stock enhancement division, TakahideNaruko, had landed an advisory post at theFederation of North Pacific Purse SeineFisheries Cooperative Association, beforequickly being named vice-president of the AllJapan Purse Seine Fisheries Association.Indeed, according to Sakaguchi, the presidentof Japan Purse Seiner's Association, Kato Hisao,was formerly head of the JFA's fisheriescoordination division, while Fisheries ResearchAgency chief Miyahara previously held toppositions at the JFA between 1978 and 2014,when he retired.

“These connections run deep, and anydecisions regarding Bluefin policy areinfluenced greatly by the economic interests ofthe purse seine industry,” he says.

Mediterranean Moderation

The targeting of spawning Bluefin is not aJapan-only practice. For almost 20 years,hundreds of purse seiner vessels from nationsincluding Morocco, Libya, France, Spain, Italyand Japan (many of which are members of theInternational Commission for the Conservationof Atlantic Tunas),

used sonar and spotter planes to trawl theMediterranean Sea for spawning AtlanticBluefin tuna. According to one World WildlifeFund report published in 2008, their annualcatch potential was estimated at almost 55,000tons – more than 3.5 times the catch levelsadvised by scientists to prevent stock collapse(15,000 tons).20

European scientists claimed that Bluefin tuna

stocks in the Mediterranean and easternAtlantic fell drastically as a result of thesepractices, but a series of stringent controlmeasures implemented over the past decade –including patrol boats and aircrafts and asatellite-based catch control system instigatedby the European Commission21 – have broughtabout a partial recovery of Bluefin populationsin the Mediterranean. Indeed, recovery wasdeemed sufficient to allow a 20 percent catchquota increase in 2015. 22

Dispute over the ISC Data

There are those who interpret the 2016 ISCassessment of Bluefin stocks in the Pacific ascause for similar hope. While the ISC reportindicated that spawning stocks in 2012 (2.1percent of unfished levels) were in factconsiderably lower than had been assessed in2014 (4.2 percent), stock estimates for 2014had shown an increase of 0.5 percent to 2.6percent23. In an article published on its websitein may 201624, the West Coast regional arm ofthe National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration (NOAA) focused on this upwardturn, stating that the current measures in placehad made “eating domestically caught Bluefin asustainable choice” and encouraged consumersto “look to the local retailers for fresh Bluefin.”

Critics are skeptical. “Frankly, anyone thatsimply uses the slightly larger population sizewithout admitting that only 2.6 percent of thepopulation remains is just causing unnecessaryconfusion,” says Nickson of The Pew CharitableTrusts, who posted a scathing riposte on PEW'swebsite in May, in which she stated that theU.S.'s “recent guidance on Pacific Bluefin callsinto question its commitment to protecting andrebuilding this troubled species.”25

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Ito Masahito prepares a bowl of fresh tunaon rice at Hama Zushi restaurant in Oma,Aomori Prefecture. Photo Rob Gihooly

In the PEW article, Nickson went on to statethat the NOAA had omitted crucial information“notably how severely depleted the populationhas become; that fishing across the Pacificremains significantly above the levels requiredfor rebuilding the species; and that U.S.fishermen are not bound by the recovery planinstituted in the western Pacific Ocean.” TheNOAA article also failed to recognize thatfishing under current regulations “is directlycontributing to the severely threatened statusof the species,” Nickson wrote

Some Japan-based experts believe that Japanhas had a big part to play in the revisedstatistics. “The ISC is heavily influenced byJapan and is the only institute that does notprovide any transparency with regard to thedata it produces,” says Hanaoka Wakao, aformer Greenpeace campaigner who now runsSeafood Legacy, a company promoting thesales of sustainably caught seafood in shopsand restaurants. “The new figures are thereforeimpossible to verify.”

Aquaculture angst

Since the 1970s, the farming of Bluefin hasbeen seen as Japan's Holy Grail and the key to

solving the stock shortage issue.

In 1970, when Bluefin spawning stock wasestimated to have fallen by 50 percent of theamount recorded when official records beganin 1952,26 a government-backed project wasconvened to develop technology that wouldsupport the fully closed life-cycle aquacultureof Bluefin tuna. A number of organizations andresearch facilities, including Kinki University(“Kindai”), Tokai University and prefecturalresearch labs in Kochi and Nagasaki, weregiven three years to succeed. In reality it took32 years to get there, largely thanks to thecontinued research at Kindai, which finallysucceeded in the complete farming of Bluefin in2002, when tuna born artificially in the mid-'90s spawned.

Other attempts at tuna seed production havebeen carried out at the JFA's National Centerfor Stock Enhancement on Ishigaki Island,Okinawa (later moved to another facility inKagoshima), and also in the private sector.Major tuna farming companies include AmamiYogyo and TAIYO A&F, and Seinan Suisan andKaneko Sagyo, the former two being affiliatesof Maruha Nichiro, the latter two affiliates ofNISSUI, Japan's biggest seafood companiesthat both also operate affiliates heavily involvedwith the purse seine netting of Bluefin.27

The JFA's development of seed productiontechnology continues, while Amami Yogyosucceeded in the harvesting of fertilized eggs inthe early 1990s (even producing 1,600 fry in1996), only to abandon its research soon afterdue to the prohibitive costs involved in larger-scale production. In recent years MaruhaNichiro has resumed experiments on seedproduction and in 2010 became the first privatesector corporation to succeed in the fullyclosed life-cycle aquaculture of Bluefin.

Consequently, the seed business has flourishedin the past two decade. According to theFisheries Agency, 92 domestic companies wereoperating tuna farms by the end of 2013, and

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the number of seed tuna being put into pensthat year was around 600,000 – almost triplethe 2005 figure (205,000).

Most are caught by small-scale troll fisheries,though purse seiners operated by the likes offisheries corporations Kyowa Suisan and ToyoGyogyo have also been targeting juvenile tunain recent years to supply to the aquacultureindustry as seed tuna. Indeed it is this trendrather than the overfishing of spawning adultBluefin tuna that has captured greaterinternational attention.

But all is not rosy in Japan's ever-expandingworld of tuna aquaculture. The cost of settingup just one of the numerous 30-meter-diameterholding pens used by Kindai researchers aloneis reportedly ¥20 million, and in the privatesector the risk to these expensive projects fromnatural disasters means only the largestcompanies can seriously compete in thefarming industry, leading to what Sanada saysis the “oligopolization by major seafood andtrading companies such as Maruha Nichiro,NISSUI, KYOKUYO, Mitsubishi and Sojitz … .”28

Meanwhile the 250 Bluefin raised at Kindairequire 1 ton of mackerel feed per day.29“Fromthe viewpoint of sustainability, wild fishing ismore desirable than farming because farmingrequires a huge amount of fish meal,” saysSanada. “For every 1 kg of Bluefin tuna (raisedon a farm), we need 12 to 15 kg of feed, such assaury, sardines, mackerel, and so on.”

According to some reports this so-called FI:FO(Fish In:Fish Out) ratio for farmed tuna can beas high as 1:20 – in other words, to produce 1kg of farmed tuna that can be sold toconsumers requires up to 20 kg of feed.

According to sustainable fisheries advocacygroup SeaChoice, “This translates into anoveral l protein loss from our marineecosystems and global food supply.”

What's more, experts say that before there can

be aquaculture, huge quantities of larvae mustsurvive. In truth, however, due to their fragilityalmost two-thirds of artificial seeds die within50 days after being put into pens and 1 percentof the remainder survives until maturity30.Scientists undertaking research at theUniversity of Maryland Baltimore County'sInstitute of Marine and Environmentaltechnology estimate the “bottleneck” forBluefin larvae is a significantly shorter three tofour weeks.31

“The ultimate goal is a switch to fully closedlife-cycle aquaculture, but this is still some wayoff,” says Yamamoto Naotoshi, a NagasakiUniversity fisheries researcher who waspreviously a researcher at Kindai's Wakayamafacility until 2008. “At that time artificialbreeding was nothing to write home about andmost was raised in the pens within the researchfacility. Now they are working with privatecompanies such as Toyota Tsusho to massproduce, but that is not going to happenovernight.”

As a result, the ratio of artificially raised andhatched tuna is just 3 percent of the farmedtuna that was shipped in 2013, pushing updemand for na tura l seeds and , as aconsequence, the unit price to boot, accordingto Sanada.

This demand, he says, has turned into abusiness chance for some ippon-zuri and othertuna fishermen who have been made largelyredundant as a result of the overfishing.

“The annual income of fishermen is not as highas you think, maybe even less than ¥2 million,”says Sanada. Catching juvenile tuna for the so-called tuna “ranching” industry, where youngtuna caught in the wild are fattened up in pens,is a rare area of growth and an opportunity forstruggling fishermen, whose numbers havebeen declining, he adds.

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Frozen tuna are unloaded at Misaki port inKanagawa Prefecture. Imports of AtlanticBluefin from the Mediterranean peaked in2006 at 22,600 tons. Six years later theyhad fallen about 64 percent to 8,200 tons.Photo Rob Gihooly

Sea Change

Sanada says a sea change in the past few yearsis an increase in voices calling for a revision ofBluefin policy and a move toward sustainablefisheries. Organizations such as SeafoodLegacy, which started operations last year, areworking with retailers to stock sustainablycaught Bluefin and other produce, while Tsukijituna trader Ikuta Yoshikatsu has developed alabeling system whereby sustainably caughttuna bares the label of his organization,Seafood Smart.

“I believe that changing the Japanese market toa sustainable one will directly contribute tosaving the oceans,” says Hanaoka of SeafoodLegacy, which played a hand in supermarketchain AEON inaugurating its “Seafood Baton”sustainable catch corner last year. “In theWest, many retailers stop selling seafood if itbecomes endangered and consumers applaudthat approach. We need that level ofconsciousness in Japan, too, and AEON isproviding a real beacon of hope.

Hanaoka also works with catering companiesand some, he says, are already looking towardthe Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

“I am sure Japan has one eye on Rio, which isalready saying it will offer sustainable seafoodat the Olympics this year,” he says. “Thequestion is, will 2020 be too late for Bluefin?”

Iki’s fishermen believe it could be. Perturbedby the lack of meaningful action by thegovernment, they took matters into their ownhands last year and, along with fishermen fromneighboring Tsushima, instigated a self-imposed three-year ban on tuna fishing duringJune and July.

“Our objective is to think of ways to ensure asustainable and continuous utilization ofBluefin resources and act on them,” saidNakamura Minoru, chairman of an Ikifisherman’s association focused on protectingtuna resources, which was nominated for aSeaWeb Seafood Champion Award in April.

“We thought that if we showed our intentions,it would stir the government into doingsomething about the situation in the Sea ofJapan spawning grounds,” Nakamura says. “Infact, however, there has been little change,with regard to the government at least.”

Unrelenting Market Forces and the Role ofGovernment

According to a source who declined to benamed, major fisheries company MaruhoNichiro, whose affiliated companies landed 60percent of Bluefin catches in 2014, suddenlydecided to reduce its catch last year. “In theend, however, the Fisheries Agency pressuredMaruho not to go through with this cut,” thesource says. “It was concerned that to do sowould amount to tacit approval of thoselobbying for such quota cuts.”

Another source with over 25 years experienceof working in fisheries, including overseas, says

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the self-imposed quota was in fact carried out.“However, it made absolutely no difference,because other industry players simply grabbedthat unfished portion,” the source said oncondition of anonymity.

The situation with Bluefin is representative ofJapan's overall fisheries policy, the source says.“Take mackerel for example, in Norwayfishermen are restricted to only takingmackerel over three years old, because belowthat age they will not be able to spawn. InJapan however, they allow catches of one-year-olds and then wonder why the stocks aredeclining. It's the same with Bluefin.”

Whereas in Oceania, America and Europegovernments first take into consideration theamount of spawning stock before settingquotas, Japan has a tendency to implementsystems that are both outdated and lacking inany scientific basis, the source adds. What'smore, it then hoodwinks the Japanese publicinto believing that the measures in place areinternationally approved.

“There are no experts (advis ing thegovernment), only academic flunkies creating asystem that makes it easy for the governmentto operate and dodge any objections,” he says.“Until Japan surrendered in the Pacific war,nobody thought they would lose …. because thepeople were fed false information claimingJapan was winning. The same thing ishappening today with its fisheries: there aresome truly insane things going on when itcomes to fisheries resource management, butthe Japanese people are being fed lies, such asthat the measures being implemented are beingpraised by the international community. Sonobody knows the truth and we end up with thevicious cycle we have, where too many fish aretaken, stocks decline and regional fishermenget crucified. ... Japan simply has no plantoward a sustainable approach to stockmanagement.”

And without such a plan in place it is

unreasonable to expect self-regulation by thepurse seine companies, who will simply followthe quotas set, the source adds.

Allegedly, however, there are those who don'teven do that. According to Iki fishermanNakamura there is a little-mentioned blackmarket for Bluefin, which includes theunreported catching of smaller fish to be soldto farms. “These smaller fish are part of the 50percent cut of bluefin weighing under 30 kg,but it's uncertain if any of the real catch data isbeing reported accurately,” Nakamura says.“There has to be proper monitoring but Japanis not acting positively to address any of thesestock-related issues. If it did then there wouldlikely be a huge global change.”

Proof of that can be seen in the vastly differentstate of bluefin stocks in the Atlantic comparedwith the Pacific, he adds.

Nagasaki University's Yamamoto argues it isunreasonable to place too much blame on purseseiners, who are after all only following theebbs and flows of market forces, particularlywhile the development of complete tunaaquaculture remains a largely lab-basedpractice.

“There are a number of places in Japanincluding the private sector, NagasakiPrefecture and the JFA, that are workingtoward the development of technology to massproduce artificial seeds ... but, for some yearsnow the trend has been to take small fish fromthe Ocean, fatten them up and sell them inJapan's markets,” Yamamoto says. “Companiesoverseas did the same thing, fattening upmature Bluefin and shipping them off to Japan,where they suddenly started to become readilyavailable even in supermarkets and kaiten-zushi (“conveyor belt sushi” restaurants),unlike before when Bluefin was solely a luxuryitem sold at high-class restaurants.”

As a result, the scale of tuna farming expandedrapidly and new players entered the market,

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which pushed up demand for natural seeds,and also the unit price, he adds. “In that kind ofsituation, where produce that was previously oflittle value, or at best a niche player in thesashimi market, suddenly can be sold at a highprice, market players are bound to go out oftheir way to cast their nets for more. ... If theswitch to mass production of artificial seedsbecomes a reality, I think it is a matter ofcourse that the burden on natural stocks ofBluefin in the Oceans will ease as it will nolonger be necessary to fish them.”

Yamamoto agrees that purse seiners targetingBluefin spawners is far from ideal, but insiststhat other elements in the Bluefin tunabusiness – including a complex distributionsystem and the habits of tuna consumersthemselves – also are playing an important rolein those purse seiner's fishing strategies.

This likely will be of little comfort for the likesof Nishi and ippon-zuri fishermen aroundJapan, many of who joined members of thefisheries industry in April to attend theinaugural Tuna Summit on Iki island.

From the information shared during thesummit, it was clear Iki's fishermen were farfrom being alone in suffering from the plungingBluefin tuna stocks and the role of the purseseiners in their plight was a leading topic ofdiscussion. As indeed was the fisheriesagency's claim that the purse seiners' catchvolume during the spawning season is no morethan 6 percent of the total, which manya t t e n d i n g d i s m i s s e d a s a g r o s sunderestimation.

Yet, it would seem that the criticism of purseseiner strategies is beginning to gain traction.One fisheries official from Sakae-Minato in

Tottori Prefecture, a base for purse seinersduring the spawning season, told Wedge thatwhile he couldn't risk giving names due to riskof being ostracized, he believed that companiesinvolved in netting “in one fell swoop” a finfishrapidly facing extinction before it can even givebirth should stop before it's too late.32

Iki's Nishi says the lack of official action tomake this happen and the impact that it hashad on him and other local fisherman is less ofa concern than what it means for futuregenerations. His son, Shota, now 21, had longexpressed a desire to become a tuna fisherman,but the poor prospects persuaded him to takework aboard a cargo ship, he says.

“What we are doing here in Iki is a drop in theocean,” Nishi says of the self-imposed three-year ban. “For things to recover, it wouldrequire a much wider effort, from thegovernment and from those operating thepurse seiners. However, it seems they areunable to think about the future. All they canthink about is the here and now — andthemselves.”

Rob Gilhooly is a British photographer andwriter who has lived in Japan for 20 years. Aformer staff reporter at the Japan Times, hiswork has appeared in publications around theglobe including Newsweek, Time, The NewYork Times, International Herald Tribune, TheTimes, The Guardian, New Scientist and theAustralian. His home page is here.

See the following articles on related themes:

Justin McCurry and David McNeill,Japan’s King of Fish Faces ExtinctionDavid McNeill and Taniguchi Tomohiko,A Solution to the Whaling Issue? FormerMOFA spokesman speaks out

Rob Gilhooly is a British photographer and writer who has lived in Japan for 20 years. Aformer staff reporter at the Japan Times, his work has appeared in publications around the

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globe including Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, TheTimes, The Guardian, New Scientist and the Australian. His home page is here.

Notes1 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Entry for Pacific Bluefin tuna2 The International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North PacificOcean was established in 1995 through an agreement between Japan and the United States toenhance scientific research and cooperation for conservation and rational utilization of thespecies of tuna and tuna-like fisheries which inhabit the North Pacific Ocean. Currentmembers include Canada, China, Korea, Mexico, Japan and the United States.3 (2) ISC Executive Summary of the 2016 Pacific Bluefin Tuna Stock Assessment4 See here.5 See here.6 See here, table 1, page 5.7 Mata mo shigenryo “kaho-shussei” no kuromaguro fuan tsunoru suisancho no kanri sochi.Wedge, July 2016. p. 578 Additionally there are some 330 distant water tuna fishing vessels and 350 offshore tunavessels, both including longliner and pole and line boats, according to government data.9 A Repeated Story of the Tragedy of the Commons. Yasuhiro Sanada. pp. 92-94. (English),available here.10 Taiheiyo kuromaguro no shigen jokyo to kanri no houkosei ni tsuite. Japan FisheriesAgency, May 2015.11 See here.12 Kuromaguro shigenkanri de “B0=B ZERO ron”, Nihon ha kikikan no kyouyu wo.” SuisanKeizai Shimbun, July 21, 2015.13 See here.14 Search for the Japanese tuna fishing data before and just after World War II. HiroakiOkamoto.15 See 5 above16 See here.17 Kuromaguro sannen renzoku teikanyu ga joken, kinkyu ruru de suisansho. Suisan-KeizaiShimbun, July 15, 201618 See here.19 See here.20 Race for the last Bluefin. WWF.21 The European Commission is the European Union's executive body, whose main roles areproposing legislation, enforcing European law and managing and implementing EU policies.22 Bluefin tuna fishing season 2015: EU benefits from recovery of the stock.23 See here, p.824 See here.25 Ahead of Critical International Meetings, the U.S. Should Not Promote Consumption ofHighly Depleted Pacific Bluefin, Amanda Nickson. Pew Charitable Trusts website, May 24.

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26 See Note 3 above27 A Repeated Story of the Tragedy of the Commons. Yasuhiro Sanada. p. 59. (English),available here.28 A Repeated Story of the Tragedy of the Commons. Yasuhiro Sanada. p. 90.29 Can farmed tuna save the Bluefin from extinction? Masami Ito, The Japan Times. January23. 2016.30 Ibid/Yamamoto Naotoshi and Kitano Shinichi “kokunai maguro yoshokugyo ni okeru oteshihon no sannyu seisan jissei to shijo kozo” p.731 Farming The Bluefin Tuna, Tiger Of The Ocean, Is Not Without A Price. Dan Charles, NPR.32 Mata mo shigenryo “kaho-shussei” no kuromaguro fuan tsunoru suisancho no kanri sochi.Wedge, July 2016. p. 58