Shark Depredation and Unwanted Bycatch in Pelagic Longline

Appendix 5
Japan Pelagic Longline Fisheries:
Industry Practices and Attitudes towards Shark Depredation and Bycatch
Shelley Clarke, scclarke@biznetvigator.com
A5.1. Introduction and Methods
This description of the shark depredation and bycatch situation in
Japanese longline fisheries is based on interviews, catch records
held by the National Research Institute for Far Seas Fisheries
(Japan Fisheries Research Agency), and other published information
as cited. The Organization for Promotion of Responsible Tuna
Fisheries (OPRT), the Global Guardian Trust (GGT) and the National
Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries (NRIFSF) provided essential
assistance in data access and compilation. The interviews were
conducted from April-July 2006 in the ports of Kesennuma in Miyagi
prefecture (15 interviews), Kii-Katsuura in Wakayama prefecture (8
interviews), Yaizu in Shizuoka prefecture (2 interviews) and Misaki
in Kanagawa prefecture (1 interview) by Shelley Clarke of NRIFSF
(all interviews), Toshikazu Miyamoto of GGT (Kesennuma and Kii-
Katsuura) and Ziro Suzuki of NRIFSF (Yaizu and Misaki) (Fig. A5.1).
These ports were chosen from a subset of Japanese ports with high
numbers of registered longline vessels and substantial catches of large
pelagic fishes (Table A5.1), and because it was possible toarrange
interviews in these areas during the timeframe of the study (see below).
In addition to aiming to conduct interviews across a range of ports
and areas, a variety of different longline vessel types were targeted.
Longline vessels in Japan are divided into three classes:
• Enyo ( 遠 洋 ), or distant water, vessels are >120 metric tonnes
(mt), have crews of 15-20, are at sea for periods of two to three
months, and range throughout the world’s oceans.
• Kinkai ( 近 海 ), or offshore, fishing vessels are 10-120 mt, have
crews of less than ten, and are at sea for periods ranging from
one week to one month in fishing grounds generally west of 180 o
longitude.
• Engan ( 沿 岸 ), or nearshore, vessels are less than 10mt, with as
few as one fisherman onboard making trips of 1-7 days.
Fig. A5.1. Map of Japan showing the location of the four interview ports.
Since enyo vessels may be absent from Japan for periods of 6-9
months (i.e. they are reprovisioned in foreign ports), they are only
infrequently in their home ports and are difficult to contact. For
this reason other major longline ports with a high proportion of
enyo vessels, e.g. Nichinan in Miyazaki prefecture on Kyuushu and
Kochi in Kochi prefecture on Shikoku, could not be included in the
interview program.
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