Journal of International Fisheries▶ Note ◀

vol.18，2019

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects
Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI＊, Tomoki HOTTA＊, Junichi OMINAMI＊＊ andTakahiro MATSUI＊＊＊†（Mie University, Graduate School／＊former Mie University／＊＊former Kyoto
University, Graduate School／＊＊＊Tokyo University of Marine Science andTechnology）
E-mail：†t-matsui@m.kaiyodai.ac.jp【abstract】
This study focused on the relationship between expected fishery promotion projects andpersonal attributes. A questionnaire survey was given to the fishermen belonging to thefishery cooperatives implementing the Multifaceted Fishery Measures at Lake Biwa.
Among the seven fishery projects, fishermen tended to select the project regarding theimprovement of water quality and removal of anomalously grown aquatic plants themost, followed by fishing ground maintenance, juvenile fish stock, harmful foreign fishextermination, fishery products promotion, nurturing successors, andGreat

Cormorants extermination. The result of the regression analysis revealed the following
points. Fishermen in the southern Lake Biwa and those who achieved higher catch
placed importance on the water quality project. The older fishermen showed higher
preference to the foreign fish extermination project. Whereas, fishermen in thenorthern Lake Biwa and younger fishermen tended to consider the fisheries-productpromoting project the most important. In addition, the Multifaceted Fishery Measures
did not significantly affect the selection of fishery promotion projects. We conclusively
show the quantitative relationship between desired fishery projects and different
positions.
【keywords】
Lake Biwa, ordered logit model, questionnaire survey, fishery promotion project

1. Introduction
Currently, fisheries and the fishing villages in Japan have various problems.
According to Japanese Fisheries Agency (2013), the total production of fisheries and-1-

Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI, Tomoki HOTTA, Junichi OMINAMI and
Takahiro MATSUI

aquaculture industries has been decreasing from 12.82 million tons at the peak in 1984
to 4.86 million tons in 2012. In addition, the production amount was 2,977.2 billion yen
at the peak in 1982 and decreased to 1,417.8 billion yen in 2012. The number of workers
in fisheries in 2012 (excluding workers in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima) decreased by
2.4% from the previous year to 174,000. The number of workers aged 65 and older
increased by 0.8 % which makes a 36.9 % increase compared to the previous year. These
data show that the number of workers in fisheries is decreasing and aging increasing.
In addition, the price of fuel has risen sharply in the past decade due to various factors
such as increased demand in emerging countries, conditions in oil producing countries,
and fluctuation in exchange rates. These changes affect the fisheries because fuelaccounts for the majority of their cost.
Fishing villages are known not only to be places of food production but also to havemultifaceted functions. Industries of agriculture, forestry and fishery have importantroles other than supplying food products, such as preservation of environment,
protection of landscapes and prevention of disasters. Multifaceted preservation
measures have been carried out by direct payment, mainly to the regions which haveconditional disadvantages. Measures to preserve multifaceted functions of the fishery
have already been implemented because of the importance of their roles, several studies
have been conducted (e.g., Furuya et al. (2006), Shima (2009)). Under the circumstances
mentioned, in order to support fisheries, Multifaceted Fishery Measures began from2013 to 2015 in Japan. These conducted fishery projects which have been supporting
activities for local initiatives, were aimed at demonstrating ‘original multifaceted
functions’ of fisheries and fishing villages.
In Lake Biwa, which is the largest lake in Japan, fisheries have been operated bytraditional methods (Azuma (2013)). In addition, some traditional food cultures using
endemic fish of Lake Biwa such as Funazushi, a rare type of fermented sushi of carp,
still exist (Tsukamoto (2013)). Lake Biwa is known for the production of Ayu(Plecoglossus altivelis) cultivation seedlings, and revenue from Ayu hauls is one of thelargest incomes for fishermen in Lake Biwa. However, the amount of catch is decreasing
due to the development of the lake-shore after the period of rapid economic growth,
declining water quality by eutrophication, feeding damages by invasive foreign fish andGreat Cormorant, and anomalous growth of aquatic plants. Particularly feedingdamage by foreign fish has become a serious problem since 1980s. Extermination offoreign fish is important not only for fisheries but also for the aspect of environmental
preservation. Therefore, studies on foreign fish extermination in various aspects are-2-

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects
conducted (e.g., Nakao et al. (2006)). Currently, the Shiga Prefecture Office conducts
projects regarding the extermination of invasive foreign fish (Yoshioka et al. (2012)).
They also established a system that affiliated fishery cooperatives buy those captured
fish. The effectiveness of this project has been pointed out in previous studies (e.g.,
Yamada et al. (2013)).
Lake Biwa is mainly comprised of two basins. The part of the lake to the north of the‘Biwako Ohashi’ Bridge, which was built at the narrowest point, is called the NorthernLake, while the part to the south is called the Southern Lake. The Southern Lake issmall (about 51.6km2) and shallow (mean depth of about 4m). The urban area such as
Otsu city exists around there. In addition, it is reported that submerged macrophytes
in the Southern Lake are increasing excessively (Haga (2008)). The Northern Lake hasa larger (about 11 times of the Southern Lake) and deeper (mean depth of about 43m)
water body than the Southern Lake. Therefore, the characteristics of the fishery in the
Northern Lake is different from that in the Southern Lake.
In addition to the change of the environment of fisheries mentioned, there are various
problems such as a decrease of the lake’s fish product consumption because of dietary
diversitification, distribution of cheap imported marine products, and aging of workers
in fisheries. Maintenance of the fishing ground and juvenile fish stock also were carriedout in Lake Biwa. Fujiwara et al. (2012) evaluated the validity of labeled Nigorobuna(Carassius auratus grandoculis) stock. Furthermore, the economic effect of juvenile fishstock by the cost-benefit ratio was clarified. As a result, it was revealed that thedischarge into reed belt is effective and it is more effective when released into the larger
reed band. Although previous studies determined the effect of each project on fisherypromotion in Lake Biwa, comprehensive assessment of the fishery promotion has notbeen found. When considering fishery promotion, it is clear that the opinions from eachfisherman are important. However, it is difficult to analyze the differences in eachposition from the interview with the representatives of the fishery cooperatives.
Therefore, the differences of projects which each fisherman desires by different
standpoints are not clarified.
In this study, a questionnaire survey is given to fishermen in Lake Biwa to clarify thesequence of fishery promotion projects that fishermen expect, showing their satisfaction
and anxiety for fisheries in Lake Biwa. In particular, the quantitative relationshipbetween different positions by fishermen and actual fishery promotion projects
implemented are described. Considering the difference in their positions, fisherypromotion projects are discussed and suggested according to the result of the analysis.
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Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI, Tomoki HOTTA, Junichi OMINAMI and
Takahiro MATSUI

2. Methods
As a preliminary survey, interviews were conducted on the Fishery Division of the
Shiga Prefecture Office on December 10, 2013 and Shiga Federation of Fisheries
Cooperatives (Shiga FFC) on June 18, 2014. At the interview at Fishery Division of
Shiga Prefecture Office, projects on fisheries at Lake Biwa and the current
extermination situation of harmful invasive foreign fish were asked. At Lake Biwa,‘New Strategy Plan of Agriculture and Fishery of Shiga’ was set up, and variety of
projects were conducted: including improvement of natural productivity by maintaining
and conserving the fishing and breeding ground, increase production of fisheryresources, preservation through extermination of foreign fish, and sustainable
development of the fishery industry. In addition, it was found that there are several
Fishery Cooperatives which conduct projects under the Multifaceted Fishery Measure
which is a Project responding to fulfillment of multifunctional roles for fisheries
supported by the Government of Japan. The fishery projects which have been
supporting activities for local initiatives, aimed at demonstrating “original multifaceted
functions” of fisheries and fishing villages.
Meanwhile, an interview was held with Shiga FFC on the characteristics of theFishery Cooperative and the status of efforts toward the Fishery Projects at Lake Biwa.
The interview survey revealed that feeding damage by foreign fish used to be a major
issue in Lake Biwa, however currently, the project on foreign fish extermination has
been carried out smoothly. This project was started in 1985 and established a system touse foreign fish (extermination, collection, processing and/or fish powderization). In
addition, 22 out of 36 fishery cooperatives in Lake Biwa took part in the Multifaceted
Fishery Projects, and it was found that the activities differed depending on each fisherycooperative. It can be assumed that they have high motivation in the fishery, since they
conduct and apply the activities by themselves. The survey was conducted on eight
fishery cooperatives among 22 according to their geographical distribution as follows:
Isoda Fishery Cooperative (Isoda FC); Imazu Fishery Cooperative (Imazu FC);
Okishima Fishery Cooperative (Okishima FC); Katada Fishery Cooperative (Katada
FC); Kosei Fishery Cooperative (Kosei FC); Seta-cho Fishery Cooperative (Seta FC)
Notogawa Fishery Cooperative (Notogawa FC); and Moriyama Fishery Cooperative(Moriyama FC). Their locations are shown in figure 1.
The survey in this study was an interview of representatives of each cooperative anda questionnaire for fishermen belonging to the target fishery cooperatives distributed-4-

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects

Imazu
Kosei

Isoda

Okishima

Notogawa

KatadaMoriyama

Seta-cho
Figure 1 Location of Survey
in October and December of 2014. The contents of interviews are the current situationand problems of fishery at each fishery cooperative, and the activities carried out under
the Multifaceted Fishery Projects. The questionnaire forms were given to the fisherycooperatives at the interview and the forms were collected by mail later. A total of 106
questionnaire forms were distributed, and the number of valid responses excluding
unanswered and incorrect answers was 80. The questionnaire survey included age, sex,
name of affiliated fishery cooperatives, membership (regular or non-regular) (1) ,employment status (full-time or part-time) (2) , personal attributes of catch andsatisfaction for fishery, anxiety on continuing fishery, and desired fishery projects. The
amount of catch is evaluated as follows: less than one million yen; between one million
and two million yen; between two million and three million yen; between three million
and four million yen, and four million yen and more. Satisfaction for fishery and anxiety
for continuing fishery are evaluated with a five-point method as follows: strongly
disagree; disagree; neutral; agree; strongly agree. In the questionnaire, seven projects
were presented based on actual projects which have been conducted in Lake Biwa, andthe full rank of their preference for the project was asked. As noted previously, in Lake
Biwa, under the plan of the New Strategy of Agriculture and Fisheries Industry, four
goals were set such as improvement of natural productivity by maintainin g andconserving the fishing and breeding ground, increasing fish production, preserving-5-

Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI, Tomoki HOTTA, Junichi OMINAMI and
Takahiro MATSUI

fishing ground by extermination of harmful invasive species, and sustainable
development of fishery industry. Although alternatives were set based on these fourplans, the alternative of preserving fishing ground by extermination is further
separated into harmful invasive foreign fish extermination and Great Cormorant
extermination. Specifically, alternatives were projects on improvement of fishingground (FG Improvement), project on stock of juvenile fish (Fish Stock), project offoreign fish extermination (Fish Extermination), project on Great Cormorant
extermination (GC Extermination), and project on nurturing successors who lead thefishery (Nurturing Successors). In addition, “PR project on fishery products” (ProductPR) was added as one of the alternatives because there were some promotion seminars,
promotion activities of the conventional foreign fish, and Funazushi cooking classes.
Furthermore, one other alternative which was “water improvement project including
removal of aquatic plants (WQ Improvement)” was added because they follow the areawide water pollutant regulation to preserve the water quality against eutrophication,
and aquatic plants has been actively removed under the Multifaceted Fishery Project.
Thus, the total number of alternatives was seven. Data collected in the questionnaire
survey were analyzed using regression analysis. The relationship between satisfaction
to fishery and the personal attributes was estimated using the Ordered Logit Model(OLM). Similarly, the relationship between anxiety to continuing fishery and thepersonal attributes was presumed. Satisfaction and anxiety were calculated according
to the explanatory variables 1 to 5 (‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’). Regarding
the affiliated fishery cooperatives, dummy variables were set to ‘0’ for the Northern
Lake (north part of Lake Biwa) and ‘1’ for the Southern Lake (south part of Lake Biwa),
and employment status were set to 0 for full-time and 1 for part-time. The catch (1,000yen) gave the class mark for each class, and 4 million yen or more was considered as
4.5 million yen. Similarly, the relationship between ranking data of the Fishery Projects
which fishermen desire and the personal attributes were examined, and they were
measured by the use of OLM and the Rank-Ordered Logit Model (ROLM). The affiliatedfishery cooperatives and their employment status are assumed to be similar dummy
variables, with low catch (less than 3 million yen) as 0, high catch (3 million yen ormore) as 1. The reason for using 3 million yen as a standard value was that thefrequency distribution became bi-modal with 3 million yen as the boundary which will
be described later. We used the polr function implemented in the MASS library of theR package in OLM and mlogit function implemented in the mlogit package in ROLM.

-6-

-7-

Moriyama [S]Otsu [S]Otsu [S]Moriyama

KatadaSeta-cho

Higashi-omi [N]Notogawa

Omi-hachiman [N]Hikone [N]IsodaOkishima

Takashima [N]Takashima [N]Location

removal of aquatic plants, and offering fisheryexperience

anomalous growth of aquaticplantsconservation of bottom of lake, cleaning of lakeshore, removal of aquatic plants, protection of reedband, and providing Funazushi Classes

shortage of successors, anomalous
growth of aquatic plants anddifficulties of male fishermen ingetting marriedoffering fishery experience, extermination offoreign fish, and removal of aquatic plants

appointing preservation, cleaning of lake-shore,offering opportunities for education andenlightenment

aging of fishermen and small sizeof fishing groundshortage of successors, fishingenvironment (aquatic plants,
invasive foreign fish)

appointing preservation, cleaning of lake-shore,
and providing Funazushi classweak consumer preference forfreshwater fish and shortage ofsuccessors

conservation of bottom of lake, removal of aquaticplants, and offering fishery experiencecleaning of lake-shore, monitoring, harvesting ofreed, and transmission of traditional food culture

continuation of fisherycooperatives

low in catch

conservation of bottom of lake, cleaning of lakeshore, removal of aquatic plants

Projects under Multifaceted Fishery Project

shortage of successors

Problems

Table 1

Kosei

Imazu

Name

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects
Result of interview survey to the fishery cooperatives

Note: N and S in parentheses mean that it is located in the Northern

Lake and in the Southern Lake, respectively.

Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI, Tomoki HOTTA, Junichi OMINAMI and
Takahiro MATSUI

3. Results
Firstly, the results of the interview survey to the representatives of eight fisherycooperatives are shown in Table 1. In the problems the fishery cooperatives faced, thesuccessor shortage was the most commonly mentioned. In addition, some fisherycooperatives consider the aging of the workers as a problem as it is difficult for them tocontinue organizing fishery cooperatives. Thus, they are assumed as critical issues.
Furthermore, it is pointed out that Isoda FC and Moriyama FC are concerned with the
decline in catch and lowered income. Katada FC, Seta FC and Okishima FC are dealing
with serious anomalous growth of aquatic plants; therefore, it is suggested that thedeterioration of the fishery is also a problem in the fishery. Various activities such as
cleaning, conservation of fishing grounds, enlightenment activities of the environment
and fishery were carried out in the Multifaceted Fishery Project. Five fisherycooperatives are working on the cleaning of lake-shore and removal of aquatic plants.
Some fishery cooperatives listed enormous growth in aquatic plants, thus it is inferredthat there are efforts utilizing the fishery project to solve these problems. The fisheryexperience activity was mainly targeted at local elementary school students. In thefishery experience activities, besides learning about fishery, tasting local fish products(e.g., miso soup using Seta Shijimi, freshwater clam domestically grown in this area)
were also exhibited as promotion of fishery.
To understand opinions of individual fisherman, a questionnaire was given onawareness for fishery in Lake Biwa and fishery promotion projects which fishermen
desire. Responded numbers of each attribute were shown in Table 2. The majority of
respondents were men and regular members. The ages of respondents were mainly
Table 2Sex
Menbership
Employment Status
Participation in theMultifaceted Fishery Project

Age

Responded numbers of each attribute
MaleFemaleRegularNon-regularFull-timePart-timeYesNo
30s and 40s
50s
60s
70s
80s
-8-

79
1
78
2
46
34
70
10
5
12
31
26
6

Fishery
Cooperative

Fish catch
revenue

Imazu
Kosei
Isoda
Notogawa
OkishimaMoriyama
KatadaSeta-cho<¥1M¥1M - ¥2M
¥2M - ¥3M
¥3M - ¥4M
>¥4M

9
5
11
5
10
9
8
23
43
11
5
9
12

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects
comprised in their 60s and 70s and the average was 66.5 years old. Focusing on theamount of catch revenue of respondents, fishermen with a fishing catch of less than 1
million yen accounted for the majority. Although there were differences in the numberof responses among fishery cooperatives, there were 40 respondents in the Southern
Lake and the Northern Lake respectively. In addition, 70 of the 80 responses wereinvolved in the Multifaceted Fishery Project, therefore the participation ratio of thefishery projects became 87.5%.
Table 3 shows the frequency of alternatives for two questions (the satisfaction forfishery and anxiety about continuation of fishery). Regarding satisfaction, there were46 fishermen which were more than half of all the respondents who answered “strongly
Table 3Results of satisfaction and anxiety to fishery
Strongly
disagreeDisagree

NeutralAgree

Strongly
agree

Satisfaction to fishery

5

8

21

32

14

Anxiety to continuing
fishery

3

3

7

39

28

Table 4

Result of OLM for satisfaction to fishery
Coefficient-1.67×10-2
5.26×10-4 ***-0.151-0.089Age
Catch (1,000yen)
Employment Status
Area
Number of data
Likelihood ratio test statistic
P-value

Std. Error
0.023
0.002
0.473
0.417
80
14.8010.00513

Note: * shows p<0.05, ** shows p<0.01, and *** shows p<0.001.

Table 5Result of OLM for anxiety to continuing fishery
Coefficient-4.06×10-3-6.70×10-6
1.013 *
0.828

Age
Catch (1,000yen)
Employment Status
Area
Number of data
Likelihood ratio test statistic
P-value

Std. Error
0.023
0.002
0.506
0.455
80
8.050
0.0898

Note: * shows p<0.05, ** shows p<0.01, and *** shows p<0.001.

-9-

Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI, Tomoki HOTTA, Junichi OMINAMI and
Takahiro MATSUI

agree” or “agree”. However, there were 34 fishermen whose responses differed from that.
Regarding their anxiety, 67 answered “strongly agree” or “agree” which accounted forabout 83.8% of the total. In other words, although the fishermen were satisfied with thefishery, but not entirely leading to many fishermen tending to feel uneasy about thecontinuation of the fishery. In order to see who is satisfied with the fishery and feel
uneasy about the fishery’s continuation, we examined the relationship between
individual attributes (age, affiliated fishery cooperatives, employment status, andfishing catch) and the satisfaction and anxiety using an OLM. Table 4 shows the resultsof the OLM for satisfaction of the fishery. First, as a result of performing a likelihood
ratio test on this model, the p-value was 0.0051, which was found out to be a statisticallysignificant model. Focusing on the regression coefficients, the amount of catch showed
positive and the other variables showed negative. The amount of catch showed 0.1%
which was statistically significant. It was found that fishermen tend to be satisfied forfishery more when the amount of catch is high. Similarly, anxiety for the continuationof the fishery was measured using an OLM (Table 5). The regression coefficient for theemployment status was statistically significant (5%). However, the p-value for thismodel was not significant (0.0898).
In the question of anxiety for the fishery’s continuation, over 80% of the fishermen
responded either “strongly agree” or “agree,” it seems that many fishermen feel someuneasiness. The result of the interview showed that at the Southern Lake, many fisherycooperatives tended to have inadequate environmental conditions such as anomalous
growth of aquatic plants. At the Northern Lake, many of the fishery cooperatives
tended to have problems with the decrease of fishery including the lack of successors.
Based on these facts, many fishermen feel some anxiety about fisheries at Lake Biwa.
The content of such uncertainty is likely to differ depending on the personal position.
Table 6

WQ Improvement
FG Improvement
Fish Stock
Fish Extermination
Product PR
Nurturing Successors
GC Extermination

Result of ranking for desired fishery projects
1st
30
11
8
3
10
15
3

2nd
11
21
15
10
7
9
7

- 10 -

3rd
15
16
14
10
14
4
7

Ranking
4th
8
13
18
18
8
10
5

5th
8
10
11
23
10
5
13

6th
5
5
9
13
10
10
28

7th
3
4
5
3
21
27
17

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects
Table 7 Average score of desired project by overall and by every personal attribute
Area

Project
Attributes

Total(n：No of data)

Employment
StatusFullParttime
time(n=46) (n=34)

Age

Catch

(n=80)(n=80)(n=80)

NorthernLake(n=40)SouthernLake(n=40)

WQ
Improvement

5.25

4.23

6.28

5.15

5.38

5.24

5.15

FG Improvement

4.74

4.58

4.90

4.78

4.68

4.72

4.73

Fish Stock

4.30

4.25

4.35

4.30

4.29

4.32

4.15

Fish
Extermination

3.76

3.80

3.73

3.74

3.79

3.81

3.68

Product PR

3.56

4.00

3.13

3.70

3.38

3.49

3.85

3.51

3.90

3.13

3.61

3.38

3.57

3.61

2.88

3.25

2.50

2.72

3.09

2.85

2.82

Nurturing
Successors
GC
Extermination

Note: Age and Catch are showed by weighted average (3).

Considering that the anxiety felt by fishermen will influence the choice of the fisheryprojects, the desired fishery projects are different depending on one’s position ofindividual fishermen. Therefore, we need to consider how they relate to each other.
Thus, in order to understand what differences exist between the fishery projects which
fishermen desired to participate in, we asked about the seven alternatives mentioned
above by ranking method. The simple totaling result is shown in Table 6. “WQ
Improvement” is the most frequently answered, with 70% of respondents wishing tohave the project at third place or higher. In the “FG Improvement,” “Fish Stock” and“Fish Extermination,” responses were frequently placed at second, fourth, and fifth,
showing a uni-modal distribution. The “Product PR” was most frequently ranked atseventh and then third place. At the same time, “Nurturing Successors” was mostfrequently ranked at seventh and then again first place. These projects were resulted
in a bi-modal distribution.
“Product PR” and “Nurturing Successors” showed a bi-modal distribution in the
ranking because some of the fishermen supported them and others did not. If thesedifferences are attributed to differences in individual positions, it is necessary tounderstand the relationship between personal attributes and the fishery projects.
Ranking data was scored by the average for the whole and personal attributes weresummarized in Table 7. Here, seventh place was given 1 point and 1 point was added- 11 -

- 12 0.790

0.464

2.89×10-8-0.1450.397

P-value

0.567

*

0.199

0.427

0.020

1.704

1.285

Catch

0.529

***

0.246

-0.02040.847

2.975

Area

0.467

0.022

LR stat.

-0.622

0.003

Employment
status

Age

Std.
Err.

Coef.

Std.
Err.

Coef.

FG
Improvement(n=80)WQ Improvement(n=80)

0.509

0.406

0.422

0.019

Std.
Err.

0.833

1.462

-0.343-0.0080.112-0.017

Coef.

Fish Stock(n=80)**

0.0372

10.200

0.023

0.163

-0.192

0.063

Coef.

0.500

0.404

0.435

0.020

Std.
Err.

Fish
Extermination(n=80)

**

***

Std.
Err.

0.467

0.418

0.423

0.022

0.00352

15.6560.510-1.1170.254-0.071

Coef.

Product PR(n=80)

0.525

0.409

0.444

0.021

Std.
Err.

0.134

7.028

-0.703-0.595

0.170

0.037

Coef.

Nurturing
Successors(n=80)

0.475

0.414

0.443

0.021

Std.
Err.

0.392

4.101

0.488

-0.592-0.566

0.002

Coef.

GC
Extermination(n=80)

Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI, Tomoki HOTTA, Junichi OMINAMI and
Takahiro MATSUI

Table 8 Regression coefficient for OLM of desired projects and personal attributes

Note: * shows p<0.05, ** shows p<0.01, and *** shows p<0.001.

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects
as the rank goes up. Regarding the region and employment status, averages were
calculated for each of the two categories, and a weighted average was calculated for age
and catch. In terms of the overall average score, “WQ Improvement,” “FG Improvement,”“Fish Stock,”, “Fish Extermination,” “Product PR,” “Nurturing Successors,” “GCExtermination” were ordered highest to lowest. Focusing on regional differences, “WQ
Improvement” showed a significantly high score at the Southern Lake, while scores at
the Northern Lake tended to be higher regarding the “Product PR” and “Nurturing
Successors” project. In the employment status, there was not a clear difference in score
between full-time and part-time fishermen. Regarding the age, there was a reversal of
ranking between “Product PR” and “Nurturing Successors”. Reversal of ranking wasshown in the fishing catch of “Fish Extermination” and “Product PR”.
As there was a difference between the average scores of each project by the personal
attributes, it is necessary to investigate the relationship with the fishery projects
including all four personal attributes. OLM was used in order to i nvestigate therelationship between ranking of the fishery project and personal attributes. Table 8shows the regression coefficients of OLMs. Statistically significant coefficients wereshown in the “WQ Improvement,” “Fish Extermination,” and “Product PR” projects. In
the “WQ Improvement,” the area variable was significantly positive at 0.1% (2.975),
and the catch was significantly positive at 5% (1.285). Fishermen who belong to thefishery cooperatives at the Southern Lake and who have larger amount of catch tended
to lean toward “WQ Improvement.” The age variable in “Fish Extermination” has asignificantly positive coefficient at 1%, and older fishermen tend to desire this project.
In the “Product PR,” the regression coefficients were negative in age and area variables,with statistically significant values (0.1%) at 1%, respectively. In other words, thisTable 9 Agreement of the fishery projects with the Multifaceted Fishery Project
Product PR
FG
Improvement
WQ
Improvement
Fish
Extermination
GC
Extermination
Fish Stock
Nurturing
Successors

Imazu

Kosei

Isoda

Notogawa

OkishimaMoriyama

KatadaSeta-cho

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×

×

×

×

×

×

×

×

×

×

Note: Dummy variables x means 0 and o means 1.

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Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI, Tomoki HOTTA, Junichi OMINAMI and
Takahiro MATSUI

result shows that the fishermen in the Northern Lake and younger have higher
evaluations of the project. On the other hand, activity contents of the Multifaceted
Fishery Project may give a large influence to preference of the projects in thequestionnaire form. Therefore, we created a dummy variable (Table 9) showing theagreement of the project contents and examined the ROLM added, as an explanatory
variable as a co-variate to estimate its effect. The coefficient of the dummy variable was
not statistically significant and we obtained the similar results of the OLM.

4. Discussion
In this study, a questionnaire survey was given to fishermen at Lake Biwa to clarify
the sequence of fishery promotion projects that fishermen desired to participate in,showing their satisfaction and anxiety for fishery in Lake Biwa. Major results aredescribed below. From the survey results, it was found that there was a statisticallysignificant relationship between the improvement of satisfaction to fishery and theamount of catch, and increasing the catch is important for improving satisfaction. In
contrast, the result showed that about 40% of fishermen with fishing catch less than 1
million yen were satisfied with the fishery, and it is inferred that the reasons other thanincome give satisfaction to the fishermen. Though more than 80% of fishermen felt
anxiety over the continuation of the fishery, we could not find a clear relation with thepersonal attributes from the results of the regression analysis. In the interview survey,
the environmental deterioration such as anomalous growth of aquatic plants at theSouthern Lake was the largest issue, whereas at the Northern Lake, the decrease offishermen including the lack of successors was pointed out as the most important issue.
Considering these results, anxiety they feel may be varied depending on their position.
According to the questionnaire survey which respondents choose from the sevenspecified fishery projects, “WQ Improvement” was selected the most and then, “FG
Improvement,” “Fish Stock,” “Fish Extermination,” “Product PR,” “Nurturing
Successors,” and “GC Extermination” in order of priority. Focusing on the relationshipbetween selection of these fishery projects, fishermen at the Southern Lake andfishermen with amount of higher catch tend to consider “WQ Improvement” to beimportant. Older fishermen considered “Fish Extermination” important. Fishermen at
the Northern Lake and younger fishermen considered “Product PR” to be important.
The other four fishery projects did not have clear relationships with personal attributes.
In addition, it was revealed that the contents of the Multifaceted Fishery Projects do- 14 -

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects
not have a large influence on the choice of the fishery projects that fishermen desire toparticipate in.
Based on the results, we consider the fishery projects of Lake Biwa take on manypriorities. First, considering the fishery projects from the viewpoint of fishery
management, the fishery projects are divided into three categories: the projects toincrease the amount of catch; projects for improving the price and consumption offisheries products, and projects to increase the number of successors in fishery.
Focusing on the project to increase the amount of catch, it was ranked highly except for
the “GC Extermination.” Also, since the three projects other than the “WQ
Improvement” and “Fish Extermination,” the relation to personal attributes is not
significant. It is suggested that the projects related to the increase in catch and resource
are basically important projects that fishermen generally desire. Specially, fishermenat the Southern Lake and those who have a large amount of catch tend to consider “WQ
Improvement” to be important, which was placed first in ranking overall. The reason
for this is presumed that eutrophication is progressing in the Southern Lake ascompared with the Northern Lake and the anomalous growth of aquatic plants affectfishery operation. The “Fish Extermination” project had a relatively lower rank, andolder fishermen tended to place importance on it. Since it was clarified that the current“Fish Extermination” project is carried out relatively smooth in the interview survey,
the importance of “Fish Extermination” may be lowered. Considering the trend ofelderly people’s dependence on catching foreign fish pointed out in the previous study(Yamada et al. (2013)), the results of this study are compatible. The “Product PR” project
related to consumption and price increase tended to be placed as important byfishermen at the Northern Lake and fishermen with lower age. It is considered that thenative fish catch at the Northern Lake is larger than that at the Southern Lake andhigher income is not usually necessary for the older fishermen. In the interview survey,
there were many fishery cooperatives who responded that the successor shortage is aproblem. However, the project on “Nurturing Successors” has a low ranking and therelationship with the personal attributes tends to be low as well.
The “FG Improvement” and the “Fish Stock” projects, which are the cores of thecurrent fishery promotion projects, also showed a high ranking as a result of thisresearch, and it was found that they are evaluated as desired projects as a whole.
However, the “WQ Improvement” project has placed the most importance on theSouthern Lake, while it was also an important project which is desired by many
fishermen. Currently, the eutrophication countermeasure by the Ministry of the- 15 -

Fukuji YAMADA, Yurika MORI, Tomoki HOTTA, Junichi OMINAMI and
Takahiro MATSUI

Environment is practically limited only to regulate nutrient load from point sources. If
the aquatic plants without a great impact on the environment can be removed, it will
possibly become an effective project both from the viewpoint of eutrophication andfishery promotion. Furthermore, if we are to create unit requirements such as COD,
nitrogen, and phosphorus of aquatic plants to be removed, we can estimate thereduction load. Tamaki and Sajiki (2014) propose a system for buying aquatic plants
removed by fishermen, and it may be one of the effective ways to consider when actuallydealing with the aquatic plants removal project. Also young fishermen wanted the“Product PR” project. Improvement of fishing catch by expanding consumption isconsidered important not only to stabilize fishery management but also to promote new
business entry into fishery.
The aging population and the decrease of the workers are advancing at Lake Biwa.
In the interview survey, there were many fishery cooperatives who replied that thesuccessor shortage was a problem, whereas the questionnaire resulted in a low ranking
for the project on “Nurturing Successors.” Although the contradiction result was
obtained, several reasons can be inferred as causes. One reason may be the differencein the position of respondents. Interviews were conducted with representatives of thefishery cooperatives; therefore, it is possible that they responded to issues related tothe continuation and development of fishery cooperatives as representatives. Whereas,
the questionnaire survey was conducted to individual fishermen, it makes sense tolower the ranking of the “Nurturing Successors” project that does not contribute to theincrease in individual fishery catch. Another is the effectiveness and uncertainty of
projects. As mentioned above, a large number of fishermen participated in this study
attained lower catches. Promoting new business entry could be difficult even when
support is given. Therefore, it is possible that the fishermen preferred projects which
could lead to effective results.

5. Conclusions
In this research, we analyzed how the fishermen of Lake Biwa feel about their fishery,
and what fishery promotion projects fishermen wanted. As a result, we clarified thedifference of the fishermen in the different positions and their relationships. From theprevious studies, it was pointed out that fishermen at Lake Biwa are important not
only from the fishery production prospective but also from the environmental
preservation aspect as well (e.g. Yamada et al. (2013)). Moreover, fostering and- 16 -

Analysis on Awareness of Fishermen in Lake Biwa and their Desired Fishery
Promotion Projects
nurturing successors for fishery to maintain the number of workers in fishery isimportant for the future. In this study, the interviews and the questionnaire survey
resulted in the opposite; therefore, it was impossible to position the importance of the“Nurturing Successors” projects. Though the budget is limited in the actual projects,
opinions of fishermen about the projects with limited budgets were not mentioned inthis study. I would like to discuss these issues in the future.
Notes(1) Membership of fisheries cooperatives is regulated by the fisheries cooperatives act. The
membership can be classified into regular membership and associate membership.
Regular membership is given to fishermen who live in an area established by fisheries
cooperatives and work more than the days determined by fisheries cooperatives.
Associate members, who don’t have a voting right and the right to elect, are members
except for regular.
(2) Some fishermen work not only in fishing but also in other jobs. Fishermen who only
work in the fishery are shown "full-time", and "part-time" means those who also work
other than fishery.
(3) The weighted average for catch were calculated by use of class values. However, classvalue of four million yen and more was set at 4.5 million yen.

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