The “successional fisheries” are a complex of various fisheries in which successional fishing is employed, harvesting a number of fish species from a limited water. The species composition of a certain multispecies resource varies for both natural reasons as a result of fishing, as discussed briefly in Section 1 of this paper. The structure of the fisheries exploiting the multispecies resource also varies over time, but those changes can be controlled by man. An ideal combination for both can therefore be sorted out.
A fisherman performs successional-like fishing operations over the year, changing fishing gear and method to pursue the most profitable fish species in different seasons and grounds. If these “arbitrary” activities are allowed to continue in all fisheries without any form of control, various and serious problems arise concerning both the resources and the fisheries e.g. serious deterioration of stocks and continuous conflicts among fishermen.
The successional fishing referred to in this paper is not a result of such arbitrary behaviour by fishermen, but is rather fishing under complete control in which a well and carefully designed management scheme is employed The changing of fishing from one to another (species, gear, ground, season, etc.) is therefore sometimes enforced by the regulatory authority regardless of fishermen's preference. Three basic principles have been established in successional fishing in Japan to justify such regulation. They include (1) the conservation of resources,(2) the harmonious carrying out of all fishing operations, and(3) a gurantee to ensure (a) the highest economic return within the framework of the management limits, and (b) equity among the entire community of fishermen in terms of profits. The regulatory measures to be employed vary greatly according to local conditions.
A multispecies resource formed in a specific water at a certain time is generally harvested by different kinds of fishing gear, especially in nearshore zones. However, the inclusion or exclusion of mechanized trawl fishing in the fisheries has important implications for the technical management of the resources, a fact which will be discussed later when considering a general management scheme in nearshore to coastal waters (see Section 6).
In Japan, mechanized trawl fishing has generally been prohibited in nearshore waters first for conservation and second for co-ordination purposes. The prohibition is strictly enforced especially in waters where an exclusiveuse right has been established. For instance, only beach seine and nonmechanized boat seine are allowed as hauling gear in the common fishing-right fishery (see Section 2). The two examples presented here are nearshore zones, in each of which exclusive-use rights have been granted to fisheries co-operatives. No mechanized trawl operation is therefore allowed.
If the combination of the various types of fishing gear to be employed during the year is carefully designed and operations with that gear is effectively controlled by “successional fishing”, the multispecies resources in a specific water can be harvested safely and harmoniously throughout the year. The authors describe here the fisheries management employed in two small-scale fishing communities in Japan to deal with such complex fishing operations. The location of the communities is shown in Figure 2.
“Hima-shima” (Hime Island) is a tiny island with an area of about 7 km2 located in the western part of the Seto Inland Sea, about 5 km off the northeastern coast of the Ooita Prefecture, Kyushu Island (Figure 2). The population, about 3 200, live together in a small village. Fishing is the most imortant industry in the village, followed by farming (vegetables and beef cattle). Most of those products are transported by ship and sold at large wholesale markets in urban districts of Kyushu. The fishermen number about 300 and all are members of the Hime-shima Fisheries Co-operative. The number of fishing vessels currently operating is about 340, composed mostly of small vessels of less than 5 gross tons, which characterizes the village as a typical small-scale fishing community in Japan.1
The nearshore waters around the island provide very good fishing grounds for a variety of fish species of high commercial value. The entire Seto Inland Sea is highly productive of many coastal fish resources, a fact that will be discussed in more detail in Section 6. Hime-shima is located in one of the most productive parts of the sea, which is called “Suho Nada” (Suho Sea) as shown in Figure 2. The fishing gear employed is all traditional, including various types of angling/lining, bottom longlines and gillnets, boat seines, pots and traps, and composes a typical multi-gear fishery in the region. No mechanized trawl fishing is allowed in the waters around the island. The catch taken by this gear comprises a number of warm water species of high commercial value, i.e. puffers, various flatfish, sea breams, whiting, largehead hairtail, common Japanese conger, Japanese sea bass, Japanese barracuda, Japanese Spanish mackerel, grunters, octopuses, kuruma prawn and other prawns/shrimps, abalone, pen shell and other shellfish, sea cucumbers, etc., which form a highly complicated multispecies resource in the region all the year round.
Figure 2. The location of the two small-scale fishing communities where "successional fishing" has been employed.They are discussed in detail as typical examples in this paper.
The Hime-shima Fisheries Co-operative, having first been entrusted with the task by the local government and second having obtained agreement from all its members, has established an autonomous self-regulatory scheme to achieve effective and harmonious utilization of the resources in the waters around the island. The principle employed in the scheme is the successive fishing intheir regulatory area. The scheme allocates fishing grounds and seasons to each of the various types of fishing gear mentioned above by using a Fishing calendar. The fishermen shift their fishing grounds and change gear according to the calendar. The principle employed in the allocation of grounds and types of gear has been derived mainly from traditional fishing rules which have been used by the fishermen of the island for a very long time, going back even before modern and democratic legal arrangements were established.
No serious conflict has occurred between the fishermen in the waters, with the exception of that caused by illegal piratic fishing by outsiders. It should be noted that seaweed culture (in winter) and kuruma prawn culture (in summer) are also incorporated in the calendar as important rotation elements for the whole fishery. This is one of the most advantageous features of exclusive-use rights for coastal zones granted to fisheries co-operatives, a feature that has been strictly defined and guaranteed by the Fisheries Law (see Section 2). Throughout the implementation of “successional fishing”, no serious decline of exploitable stocks has been experienced, nor has any sign of overfishing been observed in the Hime-shima waters in recent years.1
The total amount of production is small compared with medium- to largescale fisheries in offshore waters. However, the net income of individual fishermen has been fairly high and stable throughout the seasons and years, being boosted by earnings from successional fishing operations. It should also be noted that the fisheries co-operatives provide a great deal of help in keeping market prices of their members' landings and products high. This is achieved through various activities, especially by post-harvest handling of the catch, e.g. in live rearing, storing in modern cold storage, processing, marketing for local consumption, shipment of the landings and products to the large central wholesale markets on Kyushu Island (to Oiita, the capital of the prefecture, or Beppu, a large health resort city with hot springs), all of which is made available by the common facilities owned by the co-operative (see Section 2.1 item, (4) for the legal basis and arrangements).
The “Notsuke” Fisheries Co-operative has been organized by the fishermen in a small town named “Bekkai Cho” (Bekkai town) in the “NotsukeGun” (Notsuke county) along the east coast of Hokkaido (see Figure 2). The town is situated on the Nemuro Strait between the Okhotsk Sea and the Pacific Ocean, or between Hokkaido and the southernmost tip of the Kuril Islands.2 The number of fishermen in the town is about 250 and total annual fisheries production is about 9 000 tons. This is a typical small-scale fishing community in Japan, quite similar to Hime-shima village, discussed in the previous Subsection (see Footnote in Subsection 3.1).
2 The central part of the Strait is locally called the Notsuke Channel (see Figure 2).
The fish resources available in the nearshore to coastal waters of the Notsuke region are entirely boreal. They are, however, categorized into two different groups by their biological features and availability to fisheries. Namely, (i) salmons that are anadromous, highly mobile and strictly seasonal and (ii) other sedentary coastal resources some of which are available, in turn, all the year round. This is one of the distinctive features of the region (i.e. a mixture of migratory and sedentary resources) in contrast to that in the Hime-shima waters where resources are composed mostly of sedentary species. As a result, a region-specific approach is required for management of the Notsuke waters, which is summarized below.
Benefiting from the favourable conditions in surrounding waters,1the resources in the latter group are very rich, being composed of a number of finfish including both pelagic and demersal types, shellfish, prawns/shrimps, seaweeds and other fauna and flora. This includes Pacific halibut, plaices, soles, saffron cod, Atka mackerel, Japanese sandfish, smelts, sculpins, Japanese ice goby, sharks, skates, squids, octopuses, surf clams and other shellfish, crabs and shrimps, seaweeds, sea squirts, sea cucumbers, etc., which form a highly variable multispecies resource in the waters all the year round, changing its species composition (and thus availability of species to fisheries) in different seasons.
Salmons, which are one of the most profitable target species-groups among boreal resources, are caught by a few specific types of gear such as setnets, drift and fixed gillnets, while the other species are harvested by small-scale multi-gear fisheries including setnets, gillnets, angling, bottom longlines, purse seines, pots/traps, boat seines etc. No mechanized trawl fishing is allowed in the regulated area of the “Notsuke” Fisheries Co-operative.
The successional fishing employed in these particular waters can be divided into two different types: (i) a combination of salmon fishing and other fishing and (ii) a combination of different fishing within the “other fishing”. The important tasks that must be undertaken for regulatory purposes are there (a) the suitable allocation of fishing grounds and seasons to specific fisheries in order to minimize by-catch problems, (b) proper limitation of the number of fishing vessels and/or types of gear in an allocated fishing ground/season in order to ensure first the even distribution of fishing effort (over the area and over time), and second the effective enforcement of conservation measures, and (c) ensuring equity among the fishermen (members of the co-operatives) in terms of economic gains.
To meet this end, the co-operative has established an autonomous management scheme under the guidance and incentives given by both the national and the local government. It has established first the Fishing Right Management Committee, within the framework of the co-operative, as an official consultative authority to allocate the fishing grounds and seasons and to establish the regulations mentioned above. Then allocations and various measures, having been discussed with this committee and agreed upon by the members, are implemented by the co-operative (Nagaskai, 1983).
When allocating fishing rights to individual fishermen, equity among members is carefully taken into account. For instance, a fisherman who has already acquired a major profitable fishing right in a year (e.g. salmon setnet fishing or smelt gillnet fishing) is not allowed another major fishing right in other fishing (e.g. smelts, shrimp and sea urchin fishing) during the rest of the year even after the fishing season for salmon or smelt fishing is over, but is allowed to participate in minor fisheries (e.g. sandfish, saffron cod, octopus and sea cucumber fishing). A fisherman who owns only a minor fishing right is allowed to switch to any other minor fishing during the defined season.
The gross income of the individual fisherman during the previous fishing season is also taken into account when allocating fishing to the members at the beginning of the year, in order to ensure a certain equity in the long run. For instance, the fisherman who has earned a certain amount of gross income from a specific fishery during the year will not be allowed to operate the same fishery or another major profitable fishery the following year. The relationship between various levels of income in one year and the possible entitelement to specific fishing rights the following year has been strictly defined by the self-regulatory scheme established by the co-operative.
Regarding the autonomous regulations, a number of measures for each of the specific target fish species and the applicable gear have been established and enforced by the co-operative. For reasons of space the authors present here only a few selected examples.
Gillnet fishing; for smelt, saffron cod and sandfish
Limited fishing season (to twice a year) mesh size, amount of gear on board, closure of ground.
Gillnet fishing; for sculpins
Limited amount of gear on board, mesh size, closure of season and ground.
Bottom trap fishing; for Atka mackerel, saffron cod and flatfish
Limited fishing season, size of gear, total number of traps (up to 800).
Beach seine fishing; for flatfish, smelt and ice goby
Limited fishing season, closure of ground, temporary closures frequently employed depending on the distribution of salmon fry (for the conservation purposes).
Gillnet fishing; for sharks
Limited season, mesh size, amount of gear on board, total number of vessels (up to 50).
Sailing trawl fishing; for “Hokkai”shrimp 1
Limited number of vessels, season (twice a year, summer and autumn), shrimp size (smaller than 8.2 cm).
Catch-quota: 1 600 kg per vessel per year for the fishermen who were not engaged in salmon fishing in spring of the same year, 1 400 kg for fishermen who engaged in salmon fishing.1
Mandatory catch of trash fish: each vessel has to catch more than 500 kg of trash fish during each of the fishing seasons (1 ton in a year) and undertake to sell it to the co-operative, a requirement that aims to reduce the predators of the shrimp in the fishing ground.2
Pot fishing; for crabs
Limited season, number of pots, number of vessels (6 vessels smaller than 5 gross tons and 9 over).
Thus all fishing activity in the region has been carried out harmoniously and stably. Total production is small, at about 9 000 tons per year, compared with the other medium- to large-scale fisheries in offshore waters. However, the net income of the individual fisherman is rather high. Furthermore, no serious conflict has arisen among the fishermen, nor has there been any deterioration of resources, while such occurrences might have happened if the management measures mentioned above had not been adopted.
It would be difficult to find two examples like those described in this section in most parts of the world. However, these are quite typical and extremely common all over the nearshore zones around Japan. About 2 500 small-scale fishing in this way under management schemes established by level) have been fishing in this way under management schemes established by themselves with the same aims as those described above, namely to exploit various multispecies resources using a variety of multi-gear fisheries, regardless of differences in the species composition of the fish community to be harvested (i.e. boreal in the north, temperate in the central zone and subtropical in the south).
These features will be discussed in more detail in Sections 6 and 7 of this paper, but two facts need to be specially emphasized here: (i) there has been no serious conflict or series of conflicts among multi-gear fisheries and small-scale fishermen, and (ii) there has been no serious change either in stock abundance of a specific stock or in species composition among multispecies resources in nearshore zones around Japan in recent years.3. These stocks may have been supported partly by the highly productive environment, benefiting from favourable oceanographic conditions in the waters around Japan (as discussed by Chikuni, 1985). The authors, however, are inclined to evaluate highly positively the employment of the Japanese-type “successional fishing” under self-regulatory schemes as one of the most important reasons for the success in management of the fisheries and their resources.
2A unique regulation, but interesting and thoughtful.
3Overfishing has, however, once occurred in some waters (see Footnote 2 in Subsection 3.1).
