Challenges and its background
Fish are a natural resource that can reproduce and can be used sustainably in the future, however, when fishery stocks are caught without management and beyond their ability to reproduce, stocks are overfished and decrease dramatically. Decreased stock can be recovered using various mitigation measures, but it is more important to act before such overexploitation occurs.
Fishery stocks within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) are basically managed by its country, but straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks are managed globally by the Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs).
Among the fishery stocks, tunas which have high market value, are managed by five RFMOs. Pacific bluefin tuna is managed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), but its stock depletion has become a problem in recent years. Japan is actively engaged in fishery stock management to use resources sustainably in the future and plays a leading role in RFMOs. Therefore, fishery data collection is becoming more and more important.
In addition, efforts are being made to prevent bycatch of seabirds, sea turtles, and sharks that are incidentally caught together during the tuna fishing from the perspective of marine environment conservation.
Service/our capabilities
For the sustainable use of fishery stocks, science-based stock management is vital. JANUS, collects and prepares valuable information to contribute to stock assessment and fishery management carried out at RFMOs with the cooperation of fishermen, fisheries cooperatives, and research institutes nationwide.
We conduct the following operations to collect highly accurate catch information required by RFMO, carry out stock assessment, and avoid bycatch of seabirds.
- Formulation and implementation of observer research program for training and deploying scientific onboard observers, and for analyzing scientific data and samples collected by observers.
- Collection and analysis of scientific data that contributes to stock assessment of tunas and bycatch species.
- Development and demonstration of bycatch mitigation techniques that can be effectively introduced at tuna longline fisheries.
- Participate in RFMOs conferences and collect information related the above.