The fishing season has just begun in northeastern Japan, but the sea is empty

• Anoma van der Veere

  Correspondent Japan

“It will take another four or five years for the fish to get back to that size,” says Michinari Sakamoto, staring at the nearly empty tanks that are normally filled with fish and shellfish. He is a representative of the East Kushiro fisherman’s association in Japan and holds a big fish in his hand: “With this alone you can make sushi for fifty people, but this year there is not much to catch.”

Hundreds of kilometers of the Japanese coast were hit last year by a red algae bloom that killed hundreds of thousands of fish, seafood and shellfish. The cause is the heating of the sea water.

Japan, the land of sushi, is one of the world’s largest consumers of fish products with over 20 kilograms per capita. Rural fishing employs more than 200,000 people. Fishing is also the main source of income on the coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island. But while the fishing season has just begun, that industry is on the verge of collapse.

The region is known for its high quality salmon and sea urchins, but many of these species have perished due to red algae infestation. “We’re catching a tenth of what we caught last year in some places,” Sakamoto says.

In Kushiro, 90 percent of the sea urchins, a popular delicacy in Japan, died and more than half of the salmon died. “The seaweed settles in the gills, which causes them to choke.”

The fishery suffered more than €60 million in damages, a blow temporarily cushioned by government aid. But there are limits to the support money. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese state had already spent tens of millions to keep the local economy alive.

“It will take at least another two or three years before it recovers a bit. You can’t artificially run the whole industry for that long,” explains Toshiharu Horibe, who has been fishing for sea urchins in Hamanaka for almost his entire life. . cho.

“Meanwhile, my income has halved and many of my colleagues are considering quitting. You won’t win by nature, and if the fishermen pack up, it will soon be over,” she continues. The warehouses are empty and, although the fishing season has just begun, most of the boats are ashore.

At the moment, extra imports are being made from overseas to make up for the shortage of seafood in Japan, with a record level of sea urchins from Russia. “I hope it’s a temporary fix,” Horibe says.

The coast has been inundated with Karenia Selliformis, a poisonous species of phytoplankton that can multiply even in cold waters. It is the first time that Hokkaido, which is twice the size of the Netherlands, has reached this size: “Experts say it is partly due to warming seas further north. We are also seeing species of fish suddenly appearing here that would normally you don’t come,” Sakamoto says.

Katsunori Seki has been researching marine biodiversity around Hokkaido for over 40 years. “Because of the fluctuations in temperatures, the sea currents are acting crazy. You can see that fish and seafood are moving further and further north.”

This has an effect on biodiversity in the whole region. “Here was a kelp jungle, a food source for many fish and shellfish, of which only a few shrubs remain. Here on the coast, I used to find many different types of fish. Most have now disappeared.”

If the coast is hit by a similar plague again in the next four years, the local economy in coastal cities will collapse. Researchers are trying to build an early warning system so fishermen know a month in advance if a new plague is on the way.

“Good to know, but the sea is huge,” Sakamoto says in frustration. “We can’t evacuate all the fish, so ultimately there’s nothing we can do about it.”

He’s bleak about the future: “I’d like to stay a fisherman, but now we can only pray it doesn’t happen again. If so, I’ll have to start selling vegetables.”