北海道ほっかいどう花咲港はなさきこうサンマ豊漁ほうりょうもタンクなどの資材しざい不足ふそくする事態じたいに

For 15 consecutive years, Hanasaki Port in Nemuro City, Hokkaido, which boasts the largest catch of saury in Japan, has seen a good haul this season and is bustling with activity. However, due to the poor catches in recent years, the reception system had been downsized, resulting in a shortage of resources such as tanks for transporting fish and ice.

At Hanasaki Port in Nemuro City, the main Pacific saury stick-held net fishing, which began on the 10th of last month, has been doing well, and the catch by the end of last month reached 4,540 tons—more than double the amount during the same period last year.

Furthermore, steady catches have continued this month, and the amount landed in the 12 days up to the 12th has reached 6,395 tons, already greatly surpassing the total for August.

While the port is bustling with activity due to the first catch in a long time, some unexpected situations have also occurred.

According to the organization of Pacific saury fishermen, Zensanma National Pacific Saury Stick-held Dip Net Fishery Cooperative Association, the nationwide catch of Pacific saury exceeded 200,000 tons almost every year until 11 years ago. However, catches have declined since then, dropping to just 18,000 tons three years ago.

The local fisheries cooperative has reduced its capacity to receive saury due to poor catches in recent years, so with the large hauls coming in day after day, they are running short of tanks to hold the fish and ice to keep them fresh, and it has also become difficult to secure trucks to transport them to markets and seafood processing plants.

Also, the number of seafood companies capable of handling large quantities of Pacific saury has been decreasing. Among them, a company engaged in seafood processing in Nemuro City used to purchase about 7,000 tons of saury annually, but due to the prolonged poor catch, they have switched to handling other fish such as mackerel.

As a result, the number of wooden boxes used for shipping saury has also been reduced, and earlier this month, they ran out of stock and are now using cardboard boxes instead.

President Takao Hamaya of the seafood processing company said, I think a good catch is great, but I have absolutely no idea what the future hauls will be like.

We cant really increase our capacity, so there are some tough parts, they said.

In addition to Hanasaki Port, there are other ports where the unloading cant keep up, so Zen Sanma has been restricting operations all at once since the 4th of this month to adjust the catch volume.

According to Zen Sanma, this is the first time since 2012 that they have imposed operational restrictions, and they plan to continue them until the end of this month.