Japan's approach to the issue of derelict and drifting fishing gear - PDF document

Japan's approach to the issue of derelict and drifting fishing gear and marine debris Kiyokazu INOUE 1 ,Shuichi YOSHIOKA 2 1 Fisheries Agency, Government of Japan 2 Vice President of National Federation of Medium Trawlers Introduction Japan has developed a food culture depending on marine living resources from ancient times. Therefore, a diversity of fisheries have been practiced targeting various marine living resources throughout the country. Although fishery catch has been on a decline in recent years, fisheries still hold an important position in food supply to the people and also provide a major industry in coastal areas. Given this situation, Japan has been taking various measures that include proper conservation and management of fishery resources, research and studies regarding fishery resources, propagation of aquatic animals and plants and promotion of aquaculture, and maintenance and restoration of the habitat for aquatic living resources. In this paper, we would like to explain about the measures regarding derelict fishing gear and marine debris, and will outline the approaches taken by fishermen regarding fishing gear retention and fishing practices, which are included in the topics to be addressed by this Panel. 1. Preservation and improvement of the habitat of fishery living resources (1) Coastal cleanup activities 1

Japan's coastline extends about 37,000 kilometers, and participation of volunteers is indispensable to clean up the debris drifting ashore to such a long coastline. The Organization To Promote Conservation of Sea and Seashore is promoting a beach cleanup campaign by volunteers, with the support of national, prefectural and municipal governments, by circulating information and providing know-how regarding voluntary beach cleanup activities throughout the country. As a result, cooperation from about a total of 800,000 volunteers a year has been achieved in recent years. Fig. 1 Change of the volunteers in beach clean- up activities in Japan. 9 volunteers (hundred thousand 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 year (2) Types of debris drifting ashore Artificial debris drifting ashore the coasts of Japan are mostly plastic objects, bottles and cans disposed from households, and plastic fishing gear. In the survey conducted by the Organization To Promote Conservation of Sea and Seashore in remote islands from 2000 to 2002, it was found that there were more debris originating from foreign countries than those from Japan, and large quantities of debris are flowing to Japan from foreign countries via sea currents and northerly seasonal wind in winter. (3) Cleanup of fishing grounds Land-originated driftwood and debris are sometimes accumulated in fishing grounds because of occasional localized big downpour and subsequent flood. 2

Projects to collect driftwood and debris have been conducted in order to prevent decline in fishery production by those debris. (4) Programs to encourage fishermen to bring back debris entangled with fishing nets With respect to the debris other than fishing gear, entangled with fishing nets, there is a problem of cost to dispose of them after bringing them back to land. For this purpose, retention and disposal projects have been established in which a part of the costs for disposal are subsidized by the government. 2. Retention and recovering fishing gear (1) Use of technology For longline fisheries, driftnet fisheries and crab pot fisheries, in which fishing gear is employed separated from fishing vessels for a certain period of time, radio buoys are installed for all the gear for the fisheries conducted in offshore and distant-water areas, and radar reflectors are concurrently used in some fisheries together. Further, except for very small-type fishing vessels, positioning devices such as global positioning system (GPS) are installed in all the fishing vessels, including those operating in the coastal areas. Those devices contribute to securing recovery of fishing gear used in fishing operations in particular, in set gillnet operations. Japan is promoting transfer operation skill for responsible fishing including GPS technology in technical training programs as part of its overseas assistance. (2) Maintenance of order in fishery activities In Japanese waters, fishing operations of various types and different scales are practiced. An infrastructure to enable prevention of conflicts among different types of fisheries has been established through arrangements by the fisheries cooperative associations to which fishermen belong as well as among such associations regarding orderly use of sea area, and adjustment of interest between coastal fisheries cooperative associations and offshore fisheries cooperative associations by 3

type of fisheries. This infrastructure has been instrumental in effectively preventing loss of fishing gear by means of preventing complications in terms of areas of operation between different types of fisheries (eg, gillnet fisheries and bottom trawl fisheries). As stealth of fishing gear set for fishing operations rarely occurs in coastal Japan, buoys to facilitate the discovery of fishing gear are used in all types of fisheries. (3) Collecting of discarded fishing gear As a result of fishing operations by foreign fishing vessels in the waters under Japan's jurisdiction for many years, many fishing gears, such as bottom gillnets and pots, have been left over in the waters in the Sea of Japan. As those derelict fishing gears continue ghost fishing, adverse impact may have been inflicted on fishery resources. For this reason, fisheries organizations and local governments are deploying fishing vessels, with the central government's subsidy, to collect such abandoned fishing gear and are disposing of the collected gear on land. And fisheries patrol vessels operated by fisheries Agency of Japanese government also collect those gear. Table 1 The volume of collected fishing gear discarded by foreign fishing vessel in the waters in the Sea of Japan under Japan's jurisdiction. year 1999 2000 2001 2002 total volume(ton) 687 467 692 912 2,759 3. Disposal of unused fishing gear (1) Prohibition of waste disposal in the sea Japan has ratified Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto (MARPOL 73/78), and discarding of fishing gear at sea is prohibited under the national law. All the fishing vessels, including those engaging in long-term fishing 4

operation, are obliged to retain onboard all the unused fishing gear and land them for disposal at the time of port calls. (2) Disposal of fishing gear The Japanese national law categorizes plastic objects such as fishing nets and floats as industrial wastes. Industrial wastes are disposed of only in authorized disposal plants or plants operated by local governments. With respect to recycling technology, efforts have been promoted to develop efficient recovery system for floating Styrofoam materials, mainly coming from aquaculture, which has the problem of involving huge transportation costs because of the low density of the materials. 5