ISARIBI NO.52

ISSN1346-2512

NO.52 JAN. 2007

JapanFisheries
AssociationSankaido Bldg.,
9-13 Akasaka 1, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, Japan 107-0052
tel: 81-3-3585-6683
http//www.suisankai.or.jp

Views and Opinions of Japan’s Fisheries Industry

ICFA Annual Meeting

ICFA MEETS IN ROMEA
VOICES ADDED TO ICFICFAFROM EUROPE AND LA
TIN AMERICA
FROMEUROPELATIN

T

he International Coalition of Fisheries Associations (ICFA) met on 13-14 November, 2007, in Rome,
Italy, to identify and address issues of common interest in international fisheries. The EuropeanCommunity, Peru and the Faroe Islands joined ICFA, which will considerably enhance its presence in theinternational community.
ICFA members committed themselves to strongly encouraging their respective national governments tocontinue their management successes and target efforts to limit fishing in sensitive ocean areas in order toensure that seafood can continue to be supplied to global populations while protecting specific ecosystems.
They also called on their governments to recognize the limitation of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) as
stock protection measures, and rather consider closure areas as a means to protect biodiversity.
Finally, members agreed to support the joint meeting of the tuna regional fisheries management organizations(RFMOs) scheduled for January 2007.
The following are some of the key issues with their resolutions adopted in the meeting.

BOTT
OM TRA
WLING
BOTT
TTOM
TRAWLING

M

embers exchanged views on rational andscientific means of addressing theenvironmental impact of bottom trawling,which would be discussed at the United Nations after
the ICFA meeting. Members agreed that a high seas
moratorium is not a solution and that fishing nations,
RFMOs and the FAO should be committed to themitigation of adverse impacts as a matter of urgency.
The following resolution was adopted in the ICFAmeeting.

···Notes that trawling is acknowledged to be asustainable fishing method contributing toglobal food supply and security.
Rejects assertions that bottom trawling is a
destructive fishing practice.
Disputes some environmental NGOs
unsubstantiated and unscientific claims that

Resolution on Bottom Trawling
Whereas ICFA:· Notes that more than 90% of fishing activity
takes place within nations’ Exclusive
Economic Zones and that bottom trawling isthe major fishing method used around theworld, accounting for more than 60% ofproduction.

ICFA Meeting

ISARIBI: First published by the Japan Fisheries Association in October 1992.
JFA President: Isao Nakasu; Editor: Masashi Nishimura

ISARIBI NO.52

JAN. 2007

bottom trawling, particularly on seamounts,
destroys biodiversity.
· Rejects and condemns lawless acts ofpiracy against private fishing vessels.
ICFA therefore:· Recognizes the need for Flag States tomanage fishing activities that may affectsensitive marine ecosystems in the highseas.
· Calls for urgent action to establish regional
fishery management organizations (RFMOs)
in high seas ocean areas, when appropriate.
Until these RFMOs are established, allstates should begin to develop the means ofproviding scientific advice upon whichmeasures to protect sensitive habitats and toconserve stocks in those areas should bebased.
· Urges nations to engage in appropriate
RFMOs that provide for the utilization of
demersal fish resources through bottom
trawl fishing while ensuring sustainability,
and that any significant adverse effects on
the aquatic environment are avoided ormitigated.
· Encourages the United Nations General
Assembly to seek the technical andscientific advice of the experts from theUnited Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization on issues of bottom trawling on
the high seas.
· Urges all nations to continue to reject
extreme restrictions, such as proposal for abottom trawling moratorium on the highseas.

ECOLABELLING

P

ublic communication of sustainability has been
an issue of importance for years, and ecolabelinghas attracted special attention in the past twoyears. ICFA is concerned that gloomy stories whichquite often contradict reality are the preference of themass media in general. ICFA agreed that governments
have the responsibility to be actively engaged incommunicating the success of fisheries management
and to prevent unnecessary confusion in the market.
The following is the applicable resolution adopted in
the meeting.
Resolution on Commitment to Sustainability
Whereas ICFA:· Notes that governments have aresponsibility to manage global fisheries;····

Notes that governments also have aresponsibility to communicate success infisheries management;
Notes that the vast majority of the globe’s
fish stocks are sustainably managed;1Notes that the private sector has turned tothird party organizations to demonstrate acommitment to source their products fromsustainable fisheries;
Notes that the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization has developed Guidelines for
Ecolabelling of Products from Marine
Capture Fisheries

ICFA:· Strongly encourages governments tocontinue to ensure that global fish stocks aresustainably managed;· Strongly encourages governments to commit
more resources to better communicate theirsuccess in managing fisheries;· Urges governments to develop tools tocommunicate with retailers and restaurants
about the status of their fisheries
management;· Encourages governments to coordinateeffectively their fisheries management andthe communication of these results;· Encourages any third party fisheries
management certification be consistent withthe UN FAO Ecolabelling Guidelines.

TUNA FISHERIESMANAGEMENTThe Joint Meeting of Tuna Regional Fisheries
Management Organizations (RFMOs) will beheld January 22-26, 2006, in Kobe, Japan, hosted
by the Japanese Government with technical support
from the FAO. It will be the first meeting of the world’s
five RFMOs for tuna: the Inter-American Tropical
Tuna Commission (IATTC), the International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas(ICCAT), the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC),
the Commission for the Conservation of SouthernBluefin Tuna (CCSBT), and the Western and Central
Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). The meeting
will enable them to jointly address common issues forthe conservation and management of tuna.
The meeting was initiated following the establishmentof the WCPFC in 2004, which resulted in full coverageof all of the world’s oceans by the tuna RFMOs, andwas based on recognition of the idea that there is anurgent need to enhance cooperation and coordination
among the tuna RFMOs. Such enhanced cooperation

Page 2ISARIBI NO.52JAN. 2007

and coordination would enable them to address issues
which might not be adequately dealt with by each
RFMO alone, such as illegal, Unregulated andUnreported (IUU) fishing and the management offishing capacity.
It was agreed that the ICFA will contribute to themeeting as a representative of the responsible industry.

·IWCM

embers from pro-whaling countries
expressed concerns that IWC has been
dysfunctional for years without being able
to implement the Revised Management Scheme(RMS), a risk averse method of calculation of catch
quotas developed by the IWC’s Scientific Committee.
The St. Kitts and Nevis Declaration adopted at the58 th IWC meeting was introduced and supported.
ICFA therefore adopted the following resolution urging
the IWC members to normalize the Commission.

Resolution on Whaling
Recalling existing resolutions regarding whaling;
ICFA recognizes that:· The sovereignty, cultural practices, anddietary habits of individual nations andtheir peoples should be duly respected;· Conservation and management measures
should be implemented based on scientificfindings;· All marine living resources, including
whales, should be used sustainably whileensuring the proper conservation andrational use of stocks, as endorsed by
Agenda 21 of the 1992 Earth Summit;· Some whale stocks are abundant andfeeding on large amounts of fish and othermarine resources which likely impacts
sustainable commercial fisheries;· The International Convention for theRegulation of Whaling explicitly states its
purpose as “to provide for the proper
conservation of whales stocks and thus
make possible the orderly development of
the whaling industry”;
ICFA is:· Deeply concerned about the continuing
failure of the IWC to implement theRevised Management Scheme, therebymaintaining the 1982 moratorium oncommercial whaling despite the IWC’s
Scientific Committee’s development of arisk averse method of calculating catch
quotas and advising that a number ofstocks could be harvested on a sustainablebasis;
Deeply concerned that the IWC maintains
the 1994 Southern Ocean Sanctuary
without a recommendation that suchmeasure was required for conservation
reasons.

ICFA urges the IWC to:· Complete and implement the Revised
Management Scheme at the earliest
opportunity thereby ending the moratoriumon commercial whaling;· Encourage the research on interactions
between marine mammals and fisheryresources such as that being done by Japan,Norway, Iceland, and Russia.
ICFA:· Supports St. Kitts and Nevis Declaration
adopted in the 58th International Whaling
Commission meeting;· Urges International Whaling Commission
members to be seriously engaged in theprocess of normalization of the IWC;
· Notes the resumption of commercial whaling
by Iceland and acknowledges the right ofindividual nations to determine theappropriateness of whaling.
(Footnote)
FAO SOFIA 2006

1

ICFA is an international nongovernmentalorganization representing the fishing andseafood sectors. Members include the nationalassociations from Canada, Chile, European
Community, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Japan,New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Russia, and South
Korea.

OPINION POLL
Majority supports sustainablewhaling in a Yahoo Japan
opinion poll

Yahoo Japan, the nation’s largest web searchengine, conducted an internet opinion poll oncommercial whaling for a week from October
18 to 24.
A total of 21,221 votes were counted, of which about

Page 3

ISARIBI NO.52
90% or 19,001 votes supported commercial whaling.
As a general observation of the opinions
publicized on the website, (1) participants in thediscussion seemed considerably well informed of thestatus of whale stocks, and not many voters held thatwhales are endangered. (2) Even those who opposed
whaling seemed to dissociate themselves from theargument that whales should be treated as a special
animal because they are intelligent. (3) Many of the
supporters of whaling seemed to find it particularly
unacceptable to impose someone’s value on different
people or nation.
The poll was conducted after Iceland’s
announcement on October 17 to resume commercial

JAN. 2007
whaling after 20 years on the grounds that the debate at
the International Whaling Commission has made noprogress.
On October 21, Iceland caught a fin whale.
Previously, there were questionnaires on whaling on
the internet, and the majority in Japan has always
supported the pro-whaling position.
In a similar vein, an opinion poll was conducted by
the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2002 in
the United Kingdom, a country at the forefront of theworld’s anti-whaling campaign. To the question madein this poll on whether whaling should be permitted, over
65% of the respondents answered affirmatively.

SEAFOOD EXPOJFA to hold 9th International Seafood Showin Tokyo in July
—Osaka Seafood Show Is Also Slated for February—

The Japan Fisheries Association (JFA) said it
will hold the 9th International Seafood &Technology Expo at the Tokyo International
Exhibition Center (Tokyo Big Sight) on July 18-20,
2007.
The show, one of the largest in scale of its kind,
will be co-sponsored by the Japanese Government
ministries, foreign embassies in Japan, seafood tradeorganizations and other related industries.
The show will feature the exhibition of wide-ranging
products and services, including seafood, seasonings
and food additives, as well as machinery andequipment related to seafood processing, packaging,cooking, food sanitation control, and waste disposal.
Targeted visitors will include seafood buyers, massretailers (supermarkets, department stores, etc.), andlarge-scale seafood users (hotels, restaurants, etc.)
The JFA also said it will organize the 4thInternational Seafood & Technology Expo in Osakaat Intex Osaka on February 21-22, 2007.
Meanwhile, the JFA made public the results of the
8th International Seafood & Technology Expo heldin Tokyo, July 19-21, 2006.
A total of 295 companies from a broad spectrum
including the seafood, seasonings and food processingindustries, exhibited at the show in 535 booths.
The average number of business negotiations
conducted during the show was 80.3 per exhibitor,

with the maximum number reaching 909.
A total of 22,493 people including seafood buyers,
mass retailers and users, such as hotels and restaurants,
visited the show, as compared with 25,885 in theprevious show.
Reflecting the general recovery of Japan’s economy
and rising demand for fish, many exhibitors reported
they had positive business talks with clients.
One exhibitor said it concluded a contract worth 100million yen as a result of exhibition.
Machinery and equipment makers also reported
strong results, reflecting Japan’s recovering economy.
(In the past shows, there were views that the exhibition
should probably not include machinery and equipment.
However, in this show the prevalent view of the visitors
was that they wanted to see more machinery andequipment exhibited.)
Another exhibitor reported that exhibition by category(such as products for the aged or restaurants) lead to avisible increase in orders.
The exhibition secretariat said that the show has
become an active information source for the companies
engaged in seafood.
The JFA said that the 3rd International Seafood &Technology Expo in Osaka held February 16 and 17,
2006, was participated in by 135 companies in 180
booths, with visitors totaling 8,807 as compared with8,164 in the 2nd show.

The readers are cordially invited to send their comments on articles in this issue to mnishimu@suisankai.or.jp--Editor