This year’s saury fishing season got off to a promising start with large-vessel fishing beginning earlier than usual on the high seas. However, despite a significant increase in August landings compared to last year, experts predict that the overall catch this season will be as poor as last year’s. The reason for this is the small size of saury schools coming to nearby waters, which can be attributed to rising sea temperatures.
The saury season, known as sanma in Japanese, opened on August 10th this year. According to the Japan Fisheries Information Service Center, the total landings for August reached 2,611 tons, mainly in Hokkaido. This is a substantial increase compared to last year’s 574 tons.
The higher numbers can be attributed to large vessels starting their fishing activities about 10 days earlier than usual. In previous years, small and midsize vessels would begin fishing first before large ships joined in. However, this year saw a change in strategy with the stick-held dip net saury fisheries cooperative opening the season earlier for large vessels that venture further offshore onto the high seas.
In August, fishing grounds on the high seas were located further west than usual—around 800 kilometers to 900 kilometers off Hokkaido’s east coast. This proximity allowed more time for fishing as less time was spent traveling between ports and fishing grounds.
Despite these positive developments early on in the season, there are concerns about its overall outlook. The Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency’s long-term forecast predicts that only around 920,000 tons of saury will come to Japanese waters this year—a figure similar to last year’s catch of 940,000 tons.
Furthermore, according to a short- and medium-term forecast by the Japan Fisheries Information Service Center released on Monday: “saury will not come” near east Hokkaido during mid- and late September and even if they do appear in October they will be scarce. It is expected that they will move southward towards Aomori Prefecture and other areas but their presence is likely to be intermittent and infrequent.
One major factor contributing to poor catches nearshore is an increase in sea water temperature caused by global warming weakening the Oyashio cold current along Hokkaido’s Pacific coast. As saury prefer colder waters they have stopped coming closer inland resulting in declining catches over recent years—from a peak of approximately 350 thousand tons in 2008 down to a record low of just 18 thousand tons in 2022.
