Selected Papers

25

No.

November 2020

Director's Message
As mankind moves through the 21st century, integrated policies of ocean governanceare increasingly necessary for the sustainable development and use of our oceans andtheir resources and for the protection of the marine environment.
Towards this end, the Ocean Policy Research Institute (OPRI) of the Sasakawa Peace
Foundation orients its research on ocean issues in line with the mission statement "Living in Harmony with the Oceans."
OPRI aims to conduct cross-sectoral research in ocean related issues in order to initiate debate on marine topics and to formulate both domestic and international policy
proposals.
We publish a Japanese-language newsletter titled the "Ocean Newsletter" (previously
known as "Ship & Ocean Newsletter") twice a month. "Ocean Newsletter Selected
Papers No.25" contains English-language versions of papers from the Japanese Newsletter edition, published from No.451 (2019.5.20) to No.470 (2020.3.5). The Ocean
Newsletter seeks to provide people of diverse viewpoints and backgrounds with aforum for discussion and to contribute to the formulation of maritime policies conducive to coexistence between mankind and the ocean.
Our Institute believes that the Newsletter can expand effective communication onthese issues by introducing timely research abroad to an informed readership. It also
welcomes responses from readers, some of which appear in the Newsletter.
It is our sincere hope that these Selected Papers will provide useful insights on policy
debate in Japan and help to foster global policy dialogue on various ocean issues.
Atsushi SUNAMI
President, Sasakawa Peace Foundation
President, Ocean Policy Research Institute■T h e N ew s l e t t e r E d i t ori al Com m i t t e e●Chief Editors

KUBOKAWA Kaoru

Visiting Professor, Strategic Innovation Research Center, Teikyo University

SAKAMOTO Shigeki

Professor, Faculty of Law, Doshisha University●Members

AKIMICHI Tomoya

Director-General, Yamanashi Prefectural Fujisan World Heritage Center

OKUWAKI Naoya

President, Japan Society of Ocean Policy

KISUGI Shin

President, The Open University of Japan

SATO Shinji

Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Kochi University of Technology

SUZUKI Hideyuki

Professor, Department of Systems Innovation, The University of Tokyo

TAKIZAWA Minako
Science Journalist

MIYASHITA Kunio

Professor, Department of Foreign Studies, Kansai Gaidai University

YAMAGATA Toshio

President, Japan Marine Science Foundation

YAMASHITA Haruko

Professor, Department of Economics, Daito Bunka University■P u b l i s h e r

SUNAMI Atsushi

President, Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (OPRI-SPF)

The Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation
The Sasakawa Peace Foundation Bldg., 1-15-16 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN 105-8524
Tel. 81-3-5157-5210 / Fax. 81-3-5157-5230 E-mail. oceannewsletter@spf.or.jp
URL. https://www.spf.org/opri/©2020 The Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●2

Contents
Towards the Eradication of IUU Fishing — Initiatives by research organizations —MIYAHARA Masanori

4

President, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA), The National Research and Development Agency(Ocean Newsletter No. 452, 5 June 2019)

Cleaning of the Ocean Surface by Marine Environment Maintenance Vessels
YANO Hirofumi

Former Section Manager, Marine Environment and Technology, Port and Airport Department,
Chugoku Regional Development Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

6(Ocean Newsletter No. 452, 5 June 2019)

UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritageand Buried Cultural Property Protection Administration in Japan
NAKADA Tatsuya

Associate Professor, Graduate School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology

8(Ocean Newsletter No. 453, 20 June 2019)

Women’s Empowerment in Maritime and Ocean Research
KUBOKAWA Kaoru

11

Visiting Professor, Strategic Innovation Research Center, Teikyo University / Founder, Women for One Ocean(Ocean Newsletter No. 455, 20 July 2019)

On Nippon Yusen Kaisha Issuing the World’s First Shipping Industry Green BondSHIRANE Yuichi

13

Deputy Section Manager, Finance Group Supervision Team, Nippon Yusen Kaisha(Ocean Newsletter No. 458, 5 September 2019)

Detecting Changes in the Ocean with “Kai-Lingual”
IWAHASHI Yasunori

15

Manager, Mikimoto Pearl Research Laboratory

25

S e l e c t e d P a p e r s No.

November 2020

(Ocean Newsletter No. 458, 5 September 2019)

Towards Mapping 100% of the World’s Ocean Floor:
GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Team Wins International Competition
UNNO Mitsuyuki

17

Executive Director, The Nippon Foundation(Ocean Newsletter No. 459, 20 September 2019)

Survey and Evaluation of the Environmental Impact of Offshore
Wind Power Generation: Future Outlook Based on Examples from Europe
NAKATA Hideaki

20

Professor Emeritus, Nagasaki University / Manager, Marine Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sanyo Techno Marine, Inc(Ocean Newsletter No. 460, 5 October 2019)Japan’s Withdrawal from the IWC and its Whaling Industry
MORISHITA Joji

22

Professor, Department of Marine Policy and Culture, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology(Ocean Newsletter No. 464, 5 December 2019)

Can Maritime Boundary Delimitation Disputes Be Resolved?
SAKAMOTO Shigeki

24

Professor, Doshisha University(Ocean Newsletter No. 468, 5 February 2020)

Iceland's Chairmanship Program for the Arctic Council and the Role of Japan
HONDA Yusuke

Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, Polar Cooperation Research Centre, Kobe University / Research Fellow,
Ocean Policy Research Institute, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation

26(Ocean Newsletter No. 469, 20 February 2020)

Marine Education Programs Through School-Museum Collaborations
ITO Yoshihide

Director of Museum and Education (Curator), Administrative Section, Marine Science Museum, School of Marine Science andTechnology, Tokai University

28(Ocean Newsletter No. 470, 5 March 2020)●The affiliation of the author and the contents of the article are exactly as they appear in the Ocean Newsletter.

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●3

Towards the Eradication of IUU Fishing— Initiatives by research organizations —[KEYWORDS] IUU Fishing / Satellite Information / Joint International Research

MIYAHARA Masanori
President, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA), The National Research and Development Agency(Ocean Newsletter No. 452, 5 June 2019)

The existence of IUU fishing is a huge threat to the sustainable use of fish resources in theworld’s oceans. Given the limits to the activities of countries and RFMOs involved, the Japan
Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA) is working towards the eradication of IUU fishingby enabling appropriate management of marine resources in waters around Japan through data
analysis using cutting-edge technologies such as satellite images, as well as cooperating withother organizations in the analysis and publication of actual conditions.

What is IUU Fishing?
IUU fishing (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing)is a term that collectively refers to three types of fishingactivities: illegal fishing such as poaching or fishing withprohibited fishing gear, unreported fishing that does notreport catches or that under-reports catches, and unregulated fishing that does not comply with the regulations of
the country to which the fishing vessel belongs or the regulations for the area in which it is operating. The existenceof such IUU fishing is a major threat to the sustainable useof resources as it completely undermines current resource
management measures designed to conserve resources
based on catch information. According to the Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), theworld's marine living resources have been on the continuous
decline for a long time, and in 2015, 59.9% of the resources
had been exploited to their sustainable maximum, whereas
over-fished resources account for 33.1% of the total. Those
still having the capacity to allow an increase in production
have dropped to just 7%. The eradication of IUU fishing is
an important issue for Japan, which makes extensive use offishery resources amidst the great needs for thorough andsustainable resource management of fishery resources in
the world's oceans.

IUU Fishing Around Japan and its Impact
IUU fishing around Japan started attracting a great deal ofattention in 2014 when more than 200 Chinese fishing boats
gathered in the waters near Okinawa and the Ogasawara
Islands and began large-scale, illegal harvesting operations
to exploit precious coral resources. In 2016, large-scale collective operations were started by Chinese fishing boats inthe northwest Pacific Ocean using a new fishing method(tiger nets)1) for chub mackerel. In these cases, in addition
to fishing boats that were officially licensed in China, there
were many verified instances of illegal conduct, such as ofdifferent vessels displaying the same vessel name, of putting different names on the right and left sides of the vessel,and of vessels whose name had been changed frequently,

and in all of these cases it is presumed that the vessels wereof Chinese origin. Furthermore, in 2017, a collective illegal
operation of wooden-hulled squid fishing boats from North
Korea became apparent near the Yamatotai area in the Sea
of Japan, and it developed into a situation in which theoperations of Japanese fishing boats were disrupted.
Even prior to these reports, there had been confirmed
cases of large-scale operations in the East China Sea by
numerous Chinese fishing vessels, including tiger net fishing boats. Many of these fishing boats operate at nightand use fish lamps that attract fish, so the Japan Fisheries
Research and Education Agency (National Research andDevelopment Agency) (hereinafter referred to as the FRA)
started obtaining image data of the northwest Pacific Ocean
in 2014 and, in particular, tried to understand the actual
operating conditions of the East China Sea through the useof nighttime illumination photographs. This data was collected by the Suomi NPP polar-orbiting satellite, which isoperated by the US NOAA. Later, the FRA expanded sea
areas to be put under surveillance to both the northwest
Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan in an effort to estimate
the catch sizes of these foreign fishing boats for the purposes of improving the accuracy of fish stock assessmentsby comprehensively analyzing water temperature information from satellites and AIS (automatic identification
system) information. Since Chinese fishing boats began
active mackerel fishing activities in the northern Pacificarea in 2016, the FRA has comprehensively estimated chubmackerel catches of Chinese fishing boats through collecting not just nighttime illumination data but also AIS datafrom transport vessels together with information obtained
from interviews on their operations. The FRA found out,
among the fishing boats analyzed, many boats considered
to be unregistered IUU fishing vessels, and also confirmedthat these Chinese fishing boats continued fishing forseveral months without going back to their home ports
by unloading their catches to transport vessels. The FRA
estimated that, in the surveyed area, the total catch amountof chub mackerel by Chinese fishing boats had been about
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●4

Towards the Eradication of IUU Fishing— Initiatives by research organizations —twice the officially reported catch amount, as the amount offish caught estimated from the fish storage capacities andrefrigeration abilities of the transport vessels. The FRA also
estimated that the catch by IUU fishing could reach a range
from 150,000 to 250,000 tons2).
The FRA has continued to routinely perform analyticalwork for the East China Sea, the northwest Pacific Ocean,and the Sea of Japan, mainly using photographic nighttime
illumination data. These results are also utilized daily in
the Fisheries Agency's enforcement work. Furthermore, a
new fishing information analysis section was establishedin April 2019 to further intensify research activities using
satellite image data.

Monitoring System for the Eradication of IUUFishingGlobal Fishing Watch (hereinafter referred to as GFW), an international non-profit organization founded in 2017,
should be highlighted as a notable example of global activity helping to eradicate IUU fishing. GFW was establishedby Google and others with the goal of promoting ocean sustainability through ensuring the transparency of commercial
fishing activities, and works to visualize and publicize theactual state not just of commercial fishing activities, butalso of offshore transshipment through the utilization of AI
to analyze information from satellites, AIS, and VMS (shipmonitoring system), etc.
The information from the analyses is made available tothe public via the internet so that it can be used for scientificresearch, for marine and fisheries policy, and appropriate
fisheries management, etc., and anyone can obtain the nearreal-time information free of charge. The published information is for approx. 60,000 commercial fishing vessels,
obtained by analyzing the AIS information of more than
300,000 vessels every day, covering the period from January 1, 2012, to the present. The system was set up so thateach fishing vessel's route, along with the vessel's name andnationality, can be confirmed on the GFW website. Approx.
85% of fishing vessels cannot be tracked via AIS or VMS,
so nighttime illumination data from the Suomi NPP satellite is also used to analyze nighttime fishing operations thatuse lights, such as fish lamps to attract fish. The identified
positions of the operating fishing vessels are displayed on
GFW's website. (Figure)
The FRA has promoted exchanges with related organi3)■ Figure

Analysis by Global Fishing Watch for the two months from July to August 2018. It can beseen from the analysis of nighttime illumination images that fishing operations using a fishing lamp are actively conducted outside the boundaries of Japan's EEZ (yellow dots in theleft figure). Analysis based on AIS information can also confirm fishing activities that do not
use a fishing lamp (light blue dots in the right figure), and the status of offshore transfers canalso be estimated (red circles in the right figure).

zations including GFW, through international workshops
between scientists. Through this process, it was found that
there are almost no differences in analysis results for noncloudy, dark moon conditions when comparing FRA'snighttime illumination data analysis algorithms with
NOAA's analysis results, but while the NOAA analysis
has excellent noise removal, it is becoming clear that there
are differences in the analysis results, such as the fact that
information on fishing boats with weak lights, such as
wooden-hulled fishing boats, are not being extracted by
NOAA even though these vessels were confirmed by the
FRA analysis. In addition, data verification through actual
visual sightings and radar images, not just through satellite
information, is also a major features of FRA's analysis.
Because this kind of research exchange offers great
advantages for each institution, on September 3, 2018, the
FRA signed a memorandum of understanding for researchcooperation on elucidating IUU fishing with GFW and theAustralian National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security
at the University of Wollongong Australia. This researchcooperation aims to clarify the actual state of IUU fishingand evaluate its impact on resources, the results will be
widely disclosed, and issues identified from the results will
be raised. As a first step, preparations are currently being
made to publish a report on IUU fishing in the waters near
Japan. In addition, June 5 is the "International Day for theFight against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing,"
and before it, the three parties are planning an opportunity
to widely disseminate information to governments andmedia personnel on the activities of the research collabora■tion.

1) Tiger nets: A fishing method that uses powerful fish lanterns to attract fish (lamped purse seine) similar to Japan's round haul net fishery method.
2) Y. Oozeki et al. (2018) Reliable estimation of IUU fishing catch amounts in the northwestern Pacific adjacent to the Japanese EEZ: Potential for usage of satellite remote sensing images. Marine
Policy 88, 64-74
3) GFW: Refer to Ocean Newsletter No. 431

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●5

Cleaning of the Ocean Surface by Marine Environment
Maintenance Vessels[KEYWORDS] Marine Pollution / Drifting Debris / Oil Collection

YANO Hirofumi
Former Section Manager, Marine Environment and Technology, Port and Airport Department, Chugoku Regional Development Bureau, Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism(Ocean Newsletter No. 452, 5 June 2019)

The increasing scale of typhoons and the difficulty in predicting local downpours result in theflooding of rivers and sediment disasters, carrying massive quantities of debris, including driftwood,
into the ocean. When such flows enter bays and seas largely encircled by land, debris canaccumulate over long periods, which not only causes deterioration of the marine environment, but
can have serious consequences for navigation. In this article I would like to introduce the marine
environment maintenance vessels responsible for removal of drifting debris and floating oil andtheir various activities.

Deployment of Marine Environment Maintenance Vessels

Structure and Features of Marine Environment Maintenance Vessels

Marine pollution problems, caused by drifting debris andfloating oil, arose during the period of remarkable economic
growth from approx. 1965 to 1975, particularly in innerbays and inner seas whose water tends to stay as it is withsmall chances of being exchanged with cleaner water fromoutside sources, and as a result, the living environments andnatural environments for marine organisms deteriorated. As
impacts from these marine pollution problems on marineorganisms and sailing vessels began to appear frequently,
the Japanese government decided to embark on efforts toclean up the country’s general marine areas (marine areas
excluding port areas and fishing port areas) through making
amendments to the Port and Harbor Act in 1973.
There are currently 12 marine environment maintenancevessels deployed in semi-enclosed sea areas of Tokyo Bay,Ise Bay, the Seto Inland Sea, and the Ariake / YatsushiroSea, collecting oil discharged from vessels and driftwood
debris on the sea's surface in order to protect the marine
environment and ensure the safety of sailing vessels.
These cleaning vessels are normally engaged throughout
the year in collecting debris drifting on the sea surface,
but when a disaster or oil spill occurs, they will quickly go
to that location to remove floating debris and collect discharged oil that impedes navigation.

The most notable feature of these marine environment
maintenance vessels is their unique hull shape; regular
vessels have a single hull whereas marine environment
maintenance vessels have two hulls connected by a deck,
similar to a catamaran. The reason for this design is that thelarge deck area is needed to store debris collection equipment, an articulated crane, and oil collection equipment inplace. This design also allows drifting debris and floating
oil to be guided into the space between the two hulls where
it is then collected. For debris collection, a debris-collecting
basket is positioned on the sea surface between the twohulls, and then the vessel sails towards the debris to collectit. Long objects, such as floating logs or bamboo, whichcannot be guided into the space between the vessel's dual
hulls, are grabbed from the sea surface by the crane anddirectly collected onto the deck. Oil is collected in the same
way as debris, with oil recovery equipment on the sea surface between the two hulls. Highly volatile oil that spreads
thinly over a wide area is diffused by agitating the water via
sailing or by spraying water from a water cannon.

■ Status of Deployment and operations of marine environment maintenance vessels
Status of Deployment and operations of marine environment maintenance vessels
Collecting driftwood with an articulated craneCleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Clean Harima"
Cleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Bisan"

Cleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Dr. Kaiyo"

Cleaning vessel"Ondo 2000""Ganryu"

Cleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Ganryu"

Tokyo Bay

Dispersing floating oil with a water cannon

Ise Bay
Ariake /Yatsushiro
Sea

Seto Inland Sea
Cleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Mizuki"
Cleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Ishizuchi"
Survey and cleaning
vessel "Kaiki" "Kaiko"

Cleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Bay Clean"
Cleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Hakuryu"
Cleaning and oil recovery
vessel "Umiwaka-Maru""Ondo 2000"*Types of Marine Environment Maintenance Vessels"Cleaning and oil recovery vessel" – Vessel outfitted with equipment for debris collection equipment and oil recovery"Survey and cleaning vessel" – Vessel outfitted with equipment for debris collection equipment and for surveillance/observation"Cleaning vessel" – Vessel outfitted only with debris collection equipment

Responses to the Torrential Rains of July
2018
The heavy rains that began on July 6, 2018, recorded thehighest rainfall amount observed in history at many locations in western and eastern Japan. They inundated rivers
and caused landslides in several areas, and a large volumeof driftwood and reeds flowed into marine areas from therivers. Within the areas under the Chugoku Regional Development Bureau's jurisdiction, a large volume of driftwoodflowed into the sea in many areas including Hiroshima Bay
and the Sea of Aki area, which seriously disturbed the navigation of vessels.
A sailing vessel's hull or propeller may become seriously
damaged when the vessel comes into contact or collides
with driftwood. In addition, floating reeds may block theengine's intake of cooling water, resulting in an inability
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●6

Cleaning of the Ocean Surface by Marine Environment Maintenance Vessels
to navigate and the possibility of causing serious marine
accidents. After the heavy rains, there was a high possibility that an accident could occur, especially at night when
visibility is poor, so there was a suspension of all regularlyscheduled marine routes, including night routes, connecting
eastern parts of Hiroshima Prefecture and the surroundingislands. As such, it was necessary to remove the driftingdebris as soon as possible to ensure the safety of sailing vessels, to minimize disruption to the lives of those affected,
and to limit the economic impact. The marine environment
maintenance vessel "Ondo 2000" belongs to the Chugoku
Regional Development Bureau and normally takes care ofthese areas, but additional marine environment maintenancevessels from other regions were called in to help with the
response -- the "Ganryu" from the Kyushu Regional Development Bureau and the "Clean Harima," "Dr. Marine," and"Umiwaka-Maru" from the Kinki Regional Development
Bureau. Each day there were up to three marine environment maintenance vessels engaged in collection andcleanup operations.
In the month since the start of collection operations on
July 8, 2018, the amount of floating objects collected in the
Seto Inland Sea, the Ariake / Yatsushiro Sea, and in Ise Bay
totaled more than 7,299m3, which is approx. four times theaverage amount that is usually collected in these areas.
■ State of debris collected from the July 2018 torrential rains[Seto Inland Sea, Ariake / Yatsushiro Sea, Ise Bay]
Total amount of drifting debris collected*: 7,299 m3*Amount of drifting debris collected in these marine areasfrom July 8, 2018, to August 7, 2018

Hiroshima Bay, the Sea of Aki,
1,507m3

the Sea of Harima, Osaka Bay,
752m3

Ise Bay
133m3

Nagoya Port
Equivalent to the amount of drifting debris collected in the same marine areas overan entire year (equivalent to the capacity of approx. 1,460 10-ton trucks)

Higashi Harima Port
Kobe Port

Kure Port
Sakaide Port

Kitakyushu Portthe Sea of Suou
164m3

Matsuyama Portthe Sea of Iyo
1,423m3

Kumamoto Port

Wakayama Shimotsu Port
Eastern part of Kii Channel
426m3

Tokushima KomatsujimaPort

the Sea of Bisan, the Sea of Bingo,
the Sea of Hiuchi 1,615m3

Western part of Kii Channel
240m3

Status of drifting debris collected by marine environment maintenanceYatsushiro Port

Ariake / Yatsushiro Sea
1,039m3

Examples of Operations During a DisasterMarch 2011: Great East Japan Earthquake
The tsunami on March 11, 2011, created a large amountof debris that widely covered the coastal areas of Japan's
northern Tohoku region, so the marine environment maintenance vessels "Bay Clean" and "Hakuryu", from the Kanto
Regional Development Bureau and the Chubu Regional
Development Bureau, respectively, were dispatched basedon requests for cooperation from the 2nd Regional Japan
Coast Guard Headquarters, and collected drifting debris
in the marine areas around Sendai Bay for about a monthfrom April 23 to May 20, 2011. Afterwards, the marine
environment maintenance vessel "Umiwaka-Maru" fromthe Kinki Regional Development Bureau collected debris in
the marine areas off Sanriku Coast from May 22 - June 20,
and the marine environment maintenance vessel "Mizuki"
from the Shikoku Regional Development Bureau collected
debris in the waters around Sendai Bay from May 21 toJune 21. These four vessels collected a total of 6,722 m3 ofdrifting debris (equivalent to the capacity of approx. 1,340
10-ton trucks), including parts of houses and fishing nets.
This amount is equivalent to the amount collected over anentire year by marine environment maintenance vessels
nationwide.
July 2017: Torrential Rains in Northern Kyushu
The heavy rainfalls that hit Kyushu from July 5 to 6,
2017, mainly in its northern regions, brought total precipitation in excess of 500 mm in the hardest-hit areas, and as
a result, a large amount of driftwood flowed via rivers into
widespread areas of the Sea of Suou and the Ariake Sea.
This increased the danger of vessels’ navigation, particularly in the Kanmon Straits where many vessels cross paths.
So, the Kyushu Regional Development Bureau in chargeof marine areas around the straits dispatched the marine
environmental maintenance vessel "Ganryu" to clean up
the areas and also requested assistance from other bureaus.
In response to this request, the marine environment maintenance vessels "Ondo 2000" from the Chugoku Regional
Development Bureau, and the "Ishizuchi" from the Shikoku
Regional Development Bureau came and joined the cleanup
operations. The three vessels collected driftwood from theareas around the straits. This wide area cooperation between
marine environment assistance vessels led to the collectionof 2,033 m3 of drifting debris, including 2,690 logs, from
July 6 to August 24, 2017, in the Sea of Suou and Ariake
Sea, helping to secure the safety of sailing vessels.
Typhoons have grown in size in recent years, and there
has been an increase in the number of typhoons making
landfall and in heavy, localized rains with an hourly rainfallof more than 50 mm. Marine environment maintenancevessels will play an ever more important role in the future,such as by responding to drifting debris and oil spill accidents caused by natural disasters.
■● Chugoku Regional Development Bureau Port and Airport Department > Seto Inland Sea Comprehensive Water Quality Survey Homepage > Beautifying the Sea > Collecting and Disposing of
Floating Debris http://www.pa.cgr.mlit.go.jp/chiki/suishitu/kaisyu.htm (Japanese site)

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●7

UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater
Cultural Heritage and Buried Cultural Property Protection
Administration in Japan[KEYWORDS] Sunken Ship Ownership / Coordinating Country System / Act on Protection of Cultural Properties

NAKADA Tatsuya
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology(Ocean Newsletter No. 453, 20 June 2019)

The report by the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Investigation Review Committee for Underwater
Sites, "On Protection of Underwater Sites," was released on October 31, 2017. Designation of the
Takashima Kozaki site as the first National Historic Site found at sea means that Japan is finallybeginning to legally perceive the importance of our underwater cultural heritage. There are no doubt
still many examples of undiscovered underwater cultural heritage in Japanese territory and in thesurrounding ocean areas. The positive assessment of these sites by local government authorities
and efforts towards their protection and utilization will to some extent contribute to the effective
implementation of the Coordinating States' System provided in Convention on the Protection of theUnderwater Cultural Heritage in the future.

No Ownership Provisions in the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater
Cultural Heritage
As of March 2019, 10 years after it entered into force,
60 countries are now party to the UNESCO Convention on
the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 1) (hereinafter "the UNESCO Convention"), and the Netherlands
and Australia will soon join. According to data publishedby UNESCO, there are at least more than 3 million sunken
vessels amongst the underwater cultural heritage in theocean, including artifacts of various types and from various ages, ranging from prehistoric artifacts and ship hulls
to warships to government vessels. Warships and government vessels were excluded from discussions during thedrafting process of the UNESCO Convention because somecountries insisted that the ownership of any warship or government vessel should, unless explicitly abandoned by its
home country, continue to belong to its home country, nomatter which country’s waters the ship or vessel is physically in. In fact, some countries have enacted laws specifying this ownership definition. The UNESCO Convention,on the other hand, defined warships and government vessels
as those vessels for which more than 100 years have passed
and which were used for non-commercial purposes at thetime of sinking (Article 1, Paragraph 8). However, thedetermining criteria are unclear for ships from the Mongolian invasion of Japan, which was long before World War
I, as well as for earlier ships. As such, there is currently noestablished international law regarding this issue 2).
Sunken vessels are often laden with cargo from different
countries due to the nature of trade, and if the origin countryof each shipment claimed ownership then any international
cooperation to protect the sunken vessel, cargo, artifacts
and their surrounding areas would fall apart. In order toavoid such a situation, the UNESCO Convention treats theparty in whose waters the vessel is found as the coordinating country, and the coordinating country will share infor-

mation amongst parties that have indicated a verifiable linkto an underwater cultural heritage and will discuss ways toprotect the site (Article 9, 10). The implementation of thissystem necessarily required shelving the issue of ownershipof underwater cultural heritage.

The presumed site of the Iroha Maru ship (belonging to the Ozu Domain of the former Iyo
Province), which sank off the coast of Fukuyama City in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1867 (Keio3), was registered as an area containing buried cultural property on February 26, 1990.
(Iroha Maru Exhibition Hall, photographed by the author on January 16, 2015)

Introduction of New Coastal Jurisdiction for
Coastal Countries and the Current Situationin JapanJapan has not signed or ratified the UNESCO Convention, but applies relevant domestic laws and regulations
within its territorial waters to protect and preserve underwater cultural heritage. In fact, even though they are notof Japanese origin, the ruins of the Mongol invasion at
the Takashima Kouzaki Site were designated as the firstunderwater National Historic Site in March 2012, withJapan granting legal protections to the site due to its global
significance and value. On the other hand, the UNESCO
Convention started to deal with exclusive economic zones
and continental shelves through the afore-mentioned
coordinating country system in order to prevent imminent
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●8

UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and Buried Cultural Property
Protection Administration in Japan
danger, including looting, to underwater cultural heritage.
Importantly, the Convention made the coordinating country
to act "on behalf of the States Parties as a whole" and not
in its own interest (Article 10 Paragraph 6). As such, the
UNESCO Convention grants coastal countries jurisdiction
over the sanction and seizure of treasure hunters (Articles
17 and 18). In order for the coordinating country system tofunction universally, the UNESCO Convention is required
to receive ratification from more countries, including
advanced maritime nations, to regulate activities that target
underwater cultural heritage (Article 1 Paragraph 6) while
putting on hold the issue of owner attribution.
Japan first used the term "underwater cultural heritage
research project" in August 2012 in the summary for an
Agency for Cultural Affairs provisional budget request.
The Basic Policy on the Promotion of Culture and the Arts
(4th Policy) in May 2015 promoted research and study on
how to preserve and utilize underwater cultural heritageand encouraged efforts by local governments (Priority
Strategy 3). Additionally, with respect to the cultural heritage of underwater archeological sites, which are importantfor understanding the history and culture of Japan as amaritime nation, the second part of The Third Basic Plan on
Ocean Policy in May 2018 listed the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as a body to promote studies on the preservation and utilization of archeological sites.

UNESCO Convention on the Protection of theUnderwater Cultural Heritage and the Administering of Buried Cultural Properties
Taking advantage of the designation of the first underwater National Historic Site, the Advisory Committee on
the Research of Underwater Ruins (Agency for Cultural
Affairs) was established in March 2013, and issued thefinal report titled "State of Public Administration Work on
the Preservation of Underwater Ruins" (hereinafter "theReport") in October 2017. The Report reconfirmed that
underwater ruins shall be subject to public administrationof buried cultural properties. Buried cultural properties arethose tangible cultural properties that are buried underground, underwater, or otherwise in a state that is not visible to others. Of particular note, the Report confirmed that,when it comes to the question of whether local government
officials should apply either the 1899 Sea Casualties Rescue
Act or the 1950 Act on Protection of Cultural Properties, asa basic rule the Lost Property Act and the Act on Protectionof Cultural Properties shall be applied to determine how tohandle excavated artifacts (Explanation 4 of the Report). If
the Lost Property Act is applied to underwater ruins, then

The Hatsushima seafloor ruins at Hatsushima. The Hatsushima seafloor ruins, which were
found to be the remains of a cargo vessel that sank in the mid-17th century, have not yet
been registered as an area containing buried cultural property.
(Provided by the Asian Research Institute of Underwater Archaeology in Atami City, Shizuoka
Prefecture)

the reported property will be handed over to the mayor andownership will be transferred to the finder if the owner does
not appear even after it has been publicly announced for six
months (Article 24, Article 27 Paragraphs 1, 2). This provision may not be in conformity with the UNESCO Convention's prohibition on commercial transactions (Article 2
Paragraph 7, Annex Rule 2) and the provisions prohibiting
maritime law and regulations (Article 4).
Furthermore, while the UNESCO Convention defines
underwater cultural heritage as a site/object that has been
underwater for at least 100 years, a notice issued by the
Agency of Cultural Affairs (Agency's Retained Record No.
75, Notice from Vice Commissioner, Agency for Cultural
Affairs) in September 1998 states that the range of ruins
covered by the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties
shall include, as a general rule, those until the Middle Ages
(1192-1573) and may include some from modern times ifthey are regarded as being of particular importance. This
temporal definition by the Agency of Cultural Affairs differs from that of underwater cultural heritage. Additionally,as the Report assumed that the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties shall only be applicable to cultural properties up to the ones in territorial waters, when looking at the
UNESCO Convention there are many remaining issues thatneed to be addressed in seas outside regional waters, suchas the designation of a governmental agency responsible (orco-responsible) for the work, the acquisition of a budget,
procurement of research vessels, the training of experts, andthe maintenance of equipment.
In the future, administrative personnel will be required
to follow the guidelines in the Report and to understandthe situation regarding the distribution of underwater cultural heritage with an eye toward the registration of areas
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●9

UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and Buried Cultural Property
Protection Administration in Japan

containing buried cultural property. The next stage will bepossible only after the local governments have successfully
accumulated wide-ranging information on the situation ofburied cultural properties and secured legal protections forthem. It is expected that the experience gained by local governments during the process will serve Japan well in becoming a coordinating country in the future. When Japan does
become a coordinating country, the involvement of not only
local governments but also of the national government will
be required.
■

1) Please refer to issues 98, 301, 333, and 344 of the Ocean Newsletter for more about the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
2) However, UNESCO has published a book from an academic perspective on underwater cultural heritage that sank during World War I, more than 100 years ago, and on underwater cultural
heritage that sank during World War II.

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●10

Women’s Empowerment in Maritime and Ocean Research[KEYWORDS] World Maritime University / Participation in Gender Equality / SDG 5 and 14

KUBOKAWA Kaoru
Visiting Professor, Strategic Innovation Research Center, Teikyo University / Founder, Women for One Ocean(Ocean Newsletter No. 455, 20 July 2019)

Women are increasingly playing active roles in maritime fields in Japan like anywhere else, andthe number of female leaders has also been increasing, albeit slowly. Women’s empowerment inocean fields is increasing in Japan, including a gradual increase in leadership roles. In April 2019,
the Third International Women's Conference on the theme “Empowering Women in the Maritime
Community” was held at the World Maritime University (WMU), with over 350 participants from
more than 70 countries, issuing in concrete goals from among their common issues.

Eliminating occupational fields that have azero female participation rate
The Basic Act for Gender Equal Society came into effectin Japan in June 1999. In addition, the Act on Promotionof Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace (Promotion of Women's Advancement Act) has beenin effect since April 2016 and is being enforced as 10-yeartime-limited legislation. The Promotion of Women's
Advancement Act requires the national government, local
governments, and companies with 301 or more employees,
etc., to prepare and publish action plans with numericaltargets for women's advancement, and is expected to accelerate gender equality. However, Japan has been lagging
in international comparisons of gender equality, and in
December 2018, Japan ranked 110th out of 149 countries
in the Gender Gap Index released by the World Economic
Forum. Particularly noticeable are the low numbers offemale leaders among politicians, corporate executives,and professors. Although the employment status of womenvaries widely among occupations and job duties, female
researchers in the natural sciences have often been studied
as an example of an occupation with a low percentage ofwomen. Women account for 14.2% of researcher positionsin the natural sciences and 10.6% in engineering (White
Paper on Gender Equality 2017). There is no statistical data
for maritime fields, but my personal feeling and experience is that the ratio of women is even smaller. Women's
employment and leadership are one indicator of social
diversity and are beneficial to both men and women as itleads to enhancement of work environments and improvements in work styles. It can be said that the ratio of female
participation is a barometer of such social diversity.
Trends show that the ratio of female participation in
maritime fields is also rising. As such, even though theappellation of "first female" has become rare these days, in2018 Dr Naomi Harada was appointed as the first female
vice-captain and captain for the Japan Agency for MarineEarth Science and Technology's (a national research institute) Antarctic observations. She has also contributed to
Arctic research for many years and has embarked on many
long-term voyages. Incidentally, the first woman in his-

tory to embark on a long-term voyage was Jeanne Baret, an
18th century Frenchwoman who was onboard as assistantto a botanist 1). Oceanic research at the time was carriedout on warships, and women were not allowed to board theships, so I respect and admire the courage of this woman
who dressed herself as a man to join the voyage as the only
woman on board.
The latter half of the 19th century became an era for
women to study oceanography. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with the support of the American Women's Educational Association, began actively accepting
female students and female researchers. The ratio of female
researchers in the institution grew so large that it reached
one-third of all the researchers at times. Tsuda Umeko,
who was the first female Japanese student to study abroad
and later founded Tsuda University in efforts to promote
education for women, participated in 1889 at the institution's summer school. While studying at the institution,
Tsuda would probably have had a chance to get to know thefemale researchers and students there.

The Third WMU International Women's Conference
The female participation ratio in maritime occupationsin Japan is 13% of marine fisheries (2015), 10% of fisheries researchers (2018), and 5% of shipbuilding engineers(2014), making the number of Japanese women working inmaritime fields smaller than in the West. Taking the ThirdWMU International Women's Conference: Empowering
Women in the Maritime Community 2) as an opportunity
to learn about the know-how of European countries andthe United States, I participated in the conference. The
conference was held on April 4th and 5th, 2019, at World
Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden, and was the first
gender-related WMU conference in five years. WMU isa graduate school founded in 1983 by the United Nations'International Maritime Organization (IMO), and since 2015
Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry has been WMU's first femalepresident. Furthermore, WMU had two female students
when it was founded, but this number increased to 61
female students in the class of 2019. At this conference,
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●11

Women’s Empowerment in Maritime and Ocean Research
mentor system, 6) support for gender research, 7) development of gender equality plans in maritime industries, and8) equal employment opportunities and equal wages basedon fair evaluations. From the conference, we were able toidentify global issues in the maritime sector that are related
to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 and 14. Goingforward, I am looking forward to seeing the emergence ofan international network for women's empowerment, andalso hope to see an increase in participants from Japan at
the next conference.
Meeting at Sasakawa Hall

held at a place like WMU where women's activities areadvancing, there were more than 350 participants from 70
countries, and two video venues were prepared in addition
to Sasakawa Hall, the main venue. Participating countries
from Asia were India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Japan. Ms. Naomi Matsushita of Mitsui
O.S.K. Lines, Ltd., and myself joined the conference at theinvitation of WMU Associate Professor Momoko Kitada.
I gave a presentation on the current state of female participation rates in various maritime occupations in Japanand the activities of Women for One Ocean, which wasestablished in 2018. The overall themes of the conference
spanned a number of areas, including female leadershipin maritime occupational fields, new frontiers for female
seafarers, female participation in port development, femaleroles in maritime policy, the current status of female marine
scientists and researchers, SDG 5 and maritime industries,
female contributions to the fisheries industry, and female
participation networks. There were 76 lectures, including
poster presentations, and I realized the need for international cooperation in considering issues related to women's
employment, regardless of how big or small the female participation rates are.
An agreement was signed during the conference between
Canada and the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute toestablish a research program entitled "Empowering Womenfor the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development."There were also many participantsfrom African nations, and they had a great deal of passion
for the future development of gender equality. It was also agood opportunity for me to consider putting gender equality
initiatives into the "UN Decade of Ocean Science," whichis to start from 2021, and to consider actively participating
in some form of international cooperation.
The conference's results were finally summarized andorganized 3) into 8 items, as follows: 1) Promotion of genderequality policies, 2) survey on the current status of women's
activities in the maritime field, 3) utilization of role models, 4) enhancement of career education, 5) spread of theLaunch of Women for One Ocean
Women for One Ocean, the organization about which
I gave a presentation at the WMU International Women's
Conference, was established in May 2018. The inspiration for starting the organization goes back to the 2005
and 2008 publication of the two volume self-development
book series, "Umi no Professional (Professionals at Sea)"(Tokai University Press), that conveyed the attractivenessof maritime occupations to high school girls, and a seminar
held to commemorate the publication of the books. Written
by more than 30 female maritime professionals, the books
vividly conveyed these women’s efforts and brilliance tomany people working in maritime-related fields. Aiming
for further success 10 years later, in 2017 I conducted a program entitled "Opening the Future of the Sea! Dispatchesfrom Women for One Ocean" as a Tokyo Ocean Allianceinitiative program funded by the Nippon Foundation. This
led to the establishment of Women for One Ocean. Women
for One Ocean conducts many activities including holding
monthly web conferences, publishing newsletter, posting
information on social media and its home page, and runningscience clubs. The goal is to build a network through which
both men and women can participate equally to help solve
issues in maritime fields, including how to achieve SDGs 5
and 14.
■

Covers of Women for One Ocean Journal issues No. 1 and 2

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●12

On Nippon Yusen Kaisha Issuing the World’s First Shipping
Industry Green Bond
[KEYWORDS] ESG / Finance / Green Finance

SHIRANE Yuichi
Deputy Section Manager, Finance Group Supervision Team, Nippon Yusen Kaisha(Ocean Newsletter No. 458, 5 September 2019)

As it has become a worldwide trend for companies seeking long-term growth to adopt an ESG
perspective (environment, society, governance), rather than focusing solely on returns, in May of2018 Nippon Yusen became the world’s first maritime transport company to issue a green bond of
10 billion yen. A green bond is defined as a corporate bond limited to those investments proven tohave beneficial effects on the environment. Nippon Yusen hopes this will serve in a small way toincrease general understanding of the merits of green bonds and know-how concerning them, andencourage companies to make what can be costly environmental investments.

What are Green Bonds?
Green bonds are corporate bonds that can be issued only
for investments that have a positive environmental effect.
Investors who provide capital to companies (i.e., buy
corporate bonds) have become increasingly interested ininvesting not just in companies that give good returns, butalso in companies with good ESG (Environmental, Social,and Governance) performance. Because of this trend, green
bonds have attracted increasing attention from the public. In
recent years, this fundraising method has become popularin Japan as well, resulting in a rapid increase in the numberof newly issued green bonds.
Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line) issued the world's
first green bond for a maritime shipping company for ¥10billion in May 2018. The funds will be used for the following four investments: [1] LNG-fueled ships (ships propelled
by LNG instead of by fuel oil), [2] LNG fuel supply ships(ships that supply LNG to LNG-fueled ships), [3] ballast
water treatment equipment (equipment that treats the
microorganisms in seawater that are taken in as ballast tobalance a ship's hull), and [4] SOx scrubbers (equipmentthat removes sulfur particles from the exhaust gases ofships). All of these are included in NYK Line's long-term"Technology Roadmap for Eco-friendly Vessels."
NYK Line's reason for starting to consider green bonds
was simple. It all started from the CEO’s 2018 New Year’s
greeting in which he said, "Our company’s themes for thisyear are 'digitalization' and 'green'." After hearing these
themes, I started wondering if the Corporate Finance Teamthat I'm a part of would be able to help promote these
themes through a fund raising method that is in line withthe company's goals. During the consideration process, webecame aware of a variety of merits green bonds possess.
The first merit that we thought of was that green bonds mayhelp us expand financing resources. Among investors, who
are the source of funds, there has been a rapid increase in
the number of institutions signing the UN's Principles for
Responsible Investment (incorporating ESG perspectives
when making investment decisions), and because of thistrend, we felt that green bonds could help us forge new connections with these ESG investors, which might allow NYK
Line to expand its financing sources. The second merit
was, considering that green bonds have been attracting agreat deal of attention from the media, NYK Line would be
able to garner a lot of attention if it succeeds in becoming
the world's first marine shipping company to issue a greenbond, which would serve as a good opportunity for ourdomestic and international stakeholders to recognize NYK
Line's efforts to address environmental problems. Thus, ourteam proceeded with a more concrete study on green bondissuance.

Difficulties on the Road to Issuance
As we started working on green bond issuance, we soon
learned that it would not be an easy journey. One of themost important requirements for a green bond is to receive
an evaluation from a third-party verifier assuring that theinvestment assets, i.e., the funds usage, are green (that thefunds will have a positive environmental effect), but finding
a verifier that would serve in this role was the biggest challenge for us. We consulted with a variety of verifiers, butwere rejected by several over the use of funds for an LNGfueled ship because LNG is cleaner than fuel oil, but it isstill a fossil fuel. Overseas investors are looking for higher
standards, such as renewable energy. We asserted, however,that LNG is currently the best technically feasible fuel forlarge oceangoing ships and that LNG fuel is a necessaryintermediate step in achieving our long-term environmental
goals. I felt that the biggest breakthrough for us was being
able to finally find a verifier that understood our intentions.
In addition, green bonds require quantitative explanations and external disclosure (reporting) of the positiveenvironmental effects that will arise from the investment
assets, which is difficult for the Corporate Finance Team tohandle by itself, and so we had to collaborate with various
departments, such as the Environment Group, the TechnicalGroup, the various sales groups, as well as the Corporate
Communication Group to maximize the effectiveness of
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●13

On Nippon Yusen Kaisha Issuing the World’s First Shipping Industry Green Bond
our explanation and external communications. Obtaining
cooperation from these departments was another challenge for us. However, we were able to meet this challenge
because all the departments were very willing to cooperatewith us, and we united with them under the company’s keyword, green, and worked as a close-knit team towards thesame goal.

Issuance Results
We overcame a variety of hardships and were finallyable to issue the bond. Once the bond was issued, we soon
realized that its effect far exceeded our expectations. Many
investors took an interest in the bond and we received more
applications than expected. In addition, the majority of theinvestors were new and had not bought our previous regular corporate bonds. As the world's first maritime shipping
company to issue a green bond, NYK Line was also widelyand continuously featured in both domestic and international media such as general interest magazines, industry
magazines, finance magazines, ESG magazines, and on TV
news. We also had many opportunities to talk about thegreen bond at forums hosted by the Ministry of the Environment, securities companies, financial media, and various
industry groups. NYK Line was able to win three prestigious awards both at home and abroad.
While there were many visible results, I was personally gratified that such a wide range of people, both insideand outside the company, had worked together with us
to bring this idea to fruition. This included not only relevant departments and stakeholders from within as wellas outside the company who cooperated with us and theverifier who accepted our request, but also the people atthe Ministry of the Environment who gave us a variety ofadvice aimed at promoting the spread of green bonds; thesecurities company who worked very hard for us, sayingthat the world's shipping industry could change if this green
bond was realized; the media who supported our initiativeand posted extensive comments from interviews; and theinvestors who were interested in our green bond. Probably
everyone involved (even though they might not be awareof it) has the common goal of finally solving environmental
problems, and they are all heading in the same direction. I
also strongly felt that the words "green" and "environment"
are magical keywords that create a sense of unity that goesbeyond the interests of the people involved.

The FutureAward ceremony for the Japan Green Bond Award from the Ministry of the Environment(March 2019). In addition to receiving the Minister of the Environment Award at the Japan
Green Bond Awards, NYK Line received the Award for Innovation - Use of Proceeds fromthe British magazine Environmental Finance and the Research Institute for Environmental
Finance's Green Bond Award at the Sustainable Finance Awards in 2018.

issuing green bonds in the future if possible. NYK Lineis also participating in creating standards for international
shipping green bonds, which is sponsored by the Climate
Bonds Initiative, an international NGO. NYK Line would
like to become a leader in green finance (financing methods
limited to investments with positive environmental effects),
including those green initiatives that go beyond our own
financing.
The act of issuing green bonds itself does not have apositive environmental effect, but ultimately it makes sense
to increase the amount of environmental investment thatis used for capital financing purposes. We hope that our
initiatives for green bonds will serve as a small opportunity to cultivate a better and wider understanding of green
bonds, including their merits and related know-how, among
the general public, and will encourage other companies tocarry out at least some investments in the environment eventhough costs are involved.
■

It is hard to predict how the green finance market willdevelop in the future but based on the know-how we gained
from issuing our first green bond, we would like to continue

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●14

Detecting Changes in the Ocean with “Kai-Lingual”[KEYWORDS] Pearl Culturing / Heterocapsa circularisquama Red Tide / Biological Sensors

IWAHASHI Yasunori
Manager, Mikimoto Pearl Research Laboratory(Ocean Newsletter No. 458, 5 September 2019)

In the early 1990s, Heterocapsa-red tide, brought on by the latest type of pearl oyster killer,
plankton suddenly occurred in Ago Bay, Mie Prefecture, known as the birthplace of cultured
pearls. As a countermeasure for this terrible phenomenon, the Mikimoto Pearl Research Laboratory
co-developed the world’s first organic-based marine environment monitoring system, “Kai-Lingual(Shell-Lingual, ‘Kai’ means ‘shellfish’ in Japanese.),” using an original device to measure the valve
movement of bivalve shellfish. Mikimoto will continue to protect the ocean that grows its pearls
and live in harmony with nature.

The World's First Red Tide Sensor
Mikimoto has been culturing pearls for more than 125
years in Mie Prefecture's Ago Bay, known as the birthplaceof pearl farming. Ago Bay is formed by a Rias coastline
and a variety of large and small islands, including KashikoIsland, where the G7 Ise-Shima Summit was held. It is oneof the world's leading pearl producing areas, supported by awarm climate and the blessings of forests rich in nature.
Red tide is the most feared sea change in pearl farming.
The first records of damage from red tide to pearl oysters
for pearl cultivation date back to 1893, when Mikimoto
founder Kokichi Mikimoto succeeded in cultivating semispherical pearls. A red tide occurred that year and killed
most of the oysters that he had been raising. Fights against
red tides may, in a sense, be the history of Mikimoto's pearl
farming.
A devastating red tide suddenly appeared in the first halfof the 1990s, killing a large number of oysters in Ago Bay.
At that time, it was not known that the plankton itself could
weaken the oysters, much less kill them. Pearl farmers
working in Ago Bay at the time were confused to see thatthe farmed oysters became weakened even though the colorof the sea had not changed. As research progressed, it was
discovered that this weakening was caused by a new species of plankton called Heterocapsa circularisquama. This
plankton rapidly spread to the inner bays of western Japan
from the mid-1990s, and it is said that the total amount ofdamage to fisheries reached an estimated ¥7-10 billion injust 10 years.
What should be done to protect pearl oysters from thisplankton? Are there any countermeasures? At the time,
Kiyohito Nagai (currently a Senior Fellow), Director of the
Mikimoto Pearl Research Institute, and Tsuneo Honjo (currently General Manager of the Seto Inland Sea Regional
Research Center, Kagawa University and Professor Emeritus at Kyushu University), Department Head of the Nansei
Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory at the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, had been engaged incollaborative research and noticed that pearl oysters react

Kai-Lingual and a solar panel for monitoring the Mikimoto Tatoku farm in Ago Bay. The houseon the hill is Kokichi Mikimoto's former residence.

sharply when they sense the existence of H. circularisquama , and detecting this reaction would help people identify the emergence of red tides of this species. This finding
was obtained from viewing the situation upside down. Specifically, they realized that the oysters are the best teacherof unusual sea condition, in terms of the presence of H.
circularisquama .
At first, in order to understand the shellfish's reaction, theteam made a hole in its shell, attached an electrode to its
heart to take an electrocardiogram or measure the oyster'smuscle action potential. They also attached strain gauges toboth ends of the shell, and tried many other things. However, in all these cases, it was difficult to monitor the healthof the sea onsite while it was in a seemingly healthy condition. Then, while searching for appropriate sensors thatwould make it possible to detect the seawater conditions,the team found a Hall element sensor which converts magnetic fields into a voltage. They affixed this matchsticksize sensor wired to a measuring device to one side of theoyster's shell and a small magnet to the other side of theoyster's shell. Using this sensor in this way, the team wasable to detect the oyster's opening and closing of its shell bylooking at the changes in the strength of the magnetic field.
The use of this small sensor made it possible to capture,in real time, the condition of oysters in the sea without putOcean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●15

Detecting Changes in the Ocean with “Kai-Lingual”
ting any strain on the organism. In 2004, in collaboration
with Tokyo Measuring Instruments Laboratory Co., Ltd.,
which has technology for measuring Hall effect sensors, thetechnology was put to practical use as Kai-Lingual (ShellLingual), which makes use of the bivalve opening/closing
measuring device, and this was the moment of birth for theworld's first marine environment observation system using
biological sensors.

Monitoring Red Tides with Kai-Lingual
Pearl oysters pass seawater through their gills to take inoxygen and also to collect and eat phytoplankton. There is
the saying, "tight as a clam," which is an analogy for keeping your mouth closed, but healthy pearl oysters in normalseas only close their shell a few times an hour, usuallykeeping their shell open instead. However, they begin toopen and close their shell over and over again when H. circularisquama arrives, as if they want to spit out the things
that got in their mouth. Laboratory experiments show that
low-density H. circularisquama cause oysters to weaken
while opening and closing their shells frequently, and highdensity H. circularisquama paralyze the oyster's heart ina short time, ultimately causing the heart to stop. The sea
does not necessarily turn red, despite the name of red tide,and it is hard to notice changes in the sea, but the terrifying
H. circularisquama can now be detected in its early stagesby Kai-Lingual, thanks to the sharp reactions of the pearl
oysters, and the cultured oysters can be treated before redtide fully develops.
Kai-Lingual is installed at two locations in Ago Bay —two Kai-Linguals at the back of the bay and two Kai-Linguals in the center of the bay. The sensor shells are set
at different depths — surface depth (0m), 2m deep, 5m
deep, and bottom layer (1m above the seabottom), and thisarrangement provides information for different areas of thebay and for different depths. Information is sent from themand downloaded hourly to a computer via the internet andresearchers are alerted via an email to their smartphones
when abnormal sea conditions are detected.

H. circularisquama . This allows early responses so that theshellfish can survive and their physical strength can be preserved even if H. circularisquama proliferates and becomesa red tide.
H. circularisquama starts by growing in deep areas andthen gradually turns into red tide while moving back andforth from the upper water layers in the daytime and thenback again to the bottom layer at night. Looking at thetrends sent from sensor oysters placed in various water
depths, the effects of red tide can be reduced by moving
cultured oysters to fishing grounds in the bay that havecleaner seawater, to which fresh seawater keeps comingin, or by raising them to upper layers of the water. This
lets us refrain from indiscriminately evacuating the oysters
to another bay even when a red tide occurs. Closed shells
might contain seawater with H. circularisquama and moving them indiscriminately to another bay might spread redtide.

Wanting to Listen to Oysters
Mikimoto uses Kai-Lingual to monitor the marine environment so as to continue farming pearls in Ago Bay, thehome of cultured pearls, and Kai-Lingual allows aquaculture-damaging abnormalities, such as red tide plankton,
seawater hypoxia, and hydrogen sulfide generation to be
detected in real time. Kai-Lingual is now used for non- H.
circularisquama red tide applications, successfully handling
multiple types of plankton, such as Chattonella marina
and Karenia mikimotoi . It is expected that this technology,
developed with the aim of reducing as much as possible theburdens on both shellfish and the environment, will also
be applied to observe aquatic environments other than thesea. Analysis of Kai-Lingual information will continue inthe future so that shellfish can provide many more kinds ofinformation about the sea.
■

Responding to H. circularisquama Red Tide
In Ago Bay, which has many pearl farmers, weekly sea
observations and surveys are conducted mainly by the Mie
Prefecture Fisheries Research Institute. Sea monitoring systems are also in place, and information such as water temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, and dissolved oxygen is used
to understand stagnation or seawater inflow from outside
the bay. This is useful in forecasting plankton trends. In
addition to that, H. circularisquama cell densities in the sea
area are investigated when Kai-Lingual detects reactions to

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●16

Towards Mapping 100% of the World’s Ocean Floor:
GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Team Wins International Competition[KEYWORDS] Deep-sea exploration technology / Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE / Seabed 2030

UNNO Mitsuyuki
Executive Director, The Nippon Foundation(Ocean Newsletter No. 459, 20 September 2019)

In May of 2019, a team of GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Fellows won the international competition
Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE for deep-sea exploration technology. The team members lived indifferent countries and could not work together in one location, which was a challenge in practicalterms. Even so, their “diversity” proved to be a factor in winning the competition. In entering
the competition, the team also had a goal beyond just winning the event. All of the prize money
is expected to be used to achieve the goals set in the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030
Project to completely map the world’s entire sea floor topography by 2030.

At the competition’s award ceremony in Monaco

In May 2019, a team comprised of fellows from the
GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Training Program won the
Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, an international competition to advance deep-sea exploration technology.
There was a practical challenge in that the team members
could not work together in one location as they lived indifferent countries. Even so, their diversity proved to be afactor which contributed in them winning the competition.
In entering the competition, the team had a goal beyond
just winning.
The prize money is planned to be used for furthering thegoals of The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030
which aims to map the world’s entire ocean floor by 2030.

A Multinational Team with Members from 13
Countries
Since 2004, with the cooperation of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) 1) ,The Nippon Foundation has been running a training program to raise experts
in ocean mapping at the University of New Hampshire in
the U.S. To date, the program has trained 90 fellows from40 countries. With 16 fellows from 13 countries at its core,
the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team (hereafter
the “GEBCO-NF Team”) was formed to take part in the
Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, an international competition in deep-sea exploration technology.

In the competition organized by the XPRIZE Foundation,
participants competed for rapid data collection from anextensive area of the sea floor, using deep-water unmanned
exploration robots at a depth of 4,000 meters. Entering
the competition were 32 teams from 22 countries. Afterthe screening of documents and technology evaluation inRound 1 of the competition in Norway in November 2017,9 teams were selected to compete in the final round (Round2) off the coast of Kalamata in Greece from November
2018 to February 2019. Japan’s Team KUROSHIO, formed
with members from industry, government and academia,
also advanced to the final.
The GEBCO-NF Team was diverse. Not only did themembers come from different countries, but they also had
different affiliations, fields of specializations, and positions.
Since it was difficult for them to gather in one location towork for the competition, they communicated online. This
meant that some members only got to see other membersof the team face-to-face for the first time at the award ceremony on May 31, 2019. No other team had members scattered across the globe.
The fact that they could only communicate online posedsome practical difficulties but having members from allover the world also worked to the team’s advantage. That
is to say, the team could combine and make use of eachfellow’s connections and networks. The members contacted companies who are technological forerunners in theirrespective countries and negotiated with them directly for
their cooperation. By utilizing each member’s networks, it
was possible to immediately contact the right persons whenissues or questions arose. This would probably not havebeen possible for a team coming from a single community.
We believe that to bring about a breakthrough, not just inreference to this competition, but in everything, “diversity”
is key. Diversity is also one of the values that is regarded asimportant by The Nippon Foundation.

A Shared Vision
In the competition’s final round, the teams conducted
exploration using unmanned robots and were tested on

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●17

Towards Mapping 100% of the World’s Ocean Floor:
GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Team Wins International Competition
their technologies to create a deep-sea 3D map at a depthof 4,000 meters over an area of more than 250 square kilometers within 24 hours. Even when faced by these rigorouscompetition requirements, the GEBCO-NF Team had managed to collect the required data and create a map using thatdata within the allocated time and had managed to win thecompetition. The GEBCO-NF Team was the only team thatcleared all of the competition requirements.
It should be emphasized that in addition to the considerable knowledge and expertise derived from the diversityof the team members, the focus of the entire team was noton winning the competition but on something far larger
than that. Participation in the competition was part of theirendeavor to fulfill humanity’s dream of unlocking themysteries of the world’s ocean floor. Although it did not
directly affect the outcomes of the competition, it appears
that many involved in the competition held high regard
for the fact that the team was operating under this sharedvision.

world’s entire ocean floor by 2030. Several members of theteam have started on new initiatives after the competition,accompanying long expedition voyages to collect data in
unexplored areas of the sea. The prize money may also be
used for these initiatives.
The data from mapping the sea floor topography can beused for forecasting tsunami propagation and global sea
level rise, safe navigation of ships, monitoring of marine
life, and in addressing many other issues. In the mere 2
years since the project had started, the percentage of theworld’s ocean floor that has been mapped has increased
from 6% to 15%. Achieving the project’s goal, however,will require further cooperation from across the world.
The competition provided opportunities not only for all
the teams to explore new ways of mapping the ocean floor,

Surveying system developed and used in the competition by the GEBCO-NF Team

Round 1 (technology evaluation) in Norway in 2017

but had also served as a platform for creating new encounters and building connections. It is expected that the efforts
to map the ocean floor will accelerate with the growth of
the global network across different disciplines.. It is hopedthat people from diverse backgrounds will join in this effort
to realize humanity’s shared dream.
●

On 18th September 2019, representatives of the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team had paid a courtesy

GEBCO-NF Team processing data in Round 2 (final round) in Greece

Towards Mapping 100% of the World’s Ocean
Floor
The Grand Prize of 4 Million US Dollars was donatedin its entirety to the Nippon Foundation. The amount is
expected to be used to further the goals of the Nippon
Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, a joint initiative
between the Nippon Foundation and GEBCO to map the

Mr. Unno reports about the alumni's contribution at the Seabed 2030 Symposium in London

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●18

Towards Mapping 100% of the World’s Ocean Floor:
GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Team Wins International Competition

call to the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Shinzo Abe, toreport on their performance in the Shell Ocean Discovery
XPRIZE.
Not limited to participation in XPRIZE, contributionsof the alumni from the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation training program were also reported at The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Symposium held at the Royal
Society in London on 22nd October.
■

A team representative, Ms. Karolina Zwolak, reports to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

1) GEBCO is a joint project between the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and UNESCO-IOC to map the world’s entire ocean floor and standardize the names of undersea features.

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●19

Survey and Evaluation of the Environmental Impact of Offshore
Wind Power Generation: Future Outlook Based on Examples
from Europe[KEYWORDS] Offshore Wind Power Generation / Environmental Impact Monitoring / Windmill Artificial Reefs

NAKATA Hideaki
Professor Emeritus, Nagasaki University / Manager, Marine Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sanyo Techno Marine, Inc.

(Ocean Newsletter No. 460, 5 October 2019)

Use of renewable forms of marine energy resources such as offshore wind farms showed aremarkable advance in Europe in the last half of this century’s first decade, and has now
accumulated 10 years’ worth of many types of knowledge and know-how regarding investigations
and assessments of environmental impacts. Keeping these European conditions in mind, I would
like to explore how we should think about impacts on marine life and habitats as we begin topromote offshore wind farms in ocean areas around Japan.

Development of Offshore Wind Farms in
EuropeUtilization of renewable marine energy resources, suchas offshore wind power, has seen remarkable progress in
Europe as one of the main sources of low carbon power tocombat global warming. The installation areas of offshore
wind farms expanded rapidly in the 2000s, particularly in
the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and by the end of 2018 thetotal number of wind turbines installed in European countries reached 4,543, with a cumulative power generation
capacity of 18,499 MW.
Needless to say, engineering technology developments
and economic cost reductions have significantly contributed
to the expansion of these offshore wind power generation
projects. However, we should not overlook the fact that, asa preliminary step to this expansion of offshore wind power
generation, there had been efforts made to evaluate andmonitor environmental impacts in order to prevent and/or
mitigate them. In the years since the late 2000s the countries leading the way in total installation of offshore windfarms, i.e., the UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands,
and Belgium (the 5 countries in all of Europe that accountfor 98% of wind farms), have already acquired a wealth ofknowledge and know-how about ways to investigate andevaluate the environmental impacts of wind farms.
Based on the above-mentioned situation in Europe, thisarticle will consider how we should proceed with investigating the effects of offshore wind power generation on
marine life and their habitats when promoting offshore
wind power in ocean areas around Japan.

Effects on Marine Life and Their Habitats
The environmental impacts associated with installing
offshore wind power facilities varies depending on theirdistance from land, the water depth in the installation area,
the installation method (anchored/floating) and the type ofstructural foundation (monopile/gravity-base, etc.). In mostmarine coastal areas, existing information and knowledge
about their environments, organisms, and ecosystems, etc.,

needed to assess the impact on the environment, is limited.
The Ministry of the Environment of Japan has organized
the Study Group on the Basic Concept of Environmental
Impact Assessments for Offshore Wind Power Generationand has begun studying ways to summarize related information, both from Japan and overseas, and considering how
to select evaluation criteria. 1)
Additionally, the findings to date about the impacts ofoffshore wind power generation on the environment andmarine organisms obtained from preceding examples in
Europe are comprehensively summarized in the recently
published "Wildlife and Wind Farms, Conflicts and Solutions, Volume 3" (Perrow, 2019). This book also reveals
that there have been few cases until now in which significant impacts have been detected over the long run. However, there are still many uncertainties about the currently
available forecasts and evaluations about environmental
impacts. Therefore, there are many issues that require further research, including the cumulative impact associatedwith future expansion of offshore wind power generation
projects. As such, it is fundamentally important to further
enhance preliminary baseline surveys on environmental
impacts and to promote the accumulation and sharing ofsurvey monitoring data both during and after construction,
which will likely contribute significantly to the establishment of modeling techniques and enhanced accuracy of
impact assessments in the near future. In addition, in 2013,
the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency(BSH) stipulated in their "Investigation of the Impactsof Offshore Wind Turbines on the Marine Environment"
standards a pre-construction baseline survey period of two
years and an operational monitoring period of 3 to 5 years.
We should refer to this when considering system designs
for Japan in the future.
Furthermore, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) in Europe
has been formulated and is being used to select suitablesites for offshore wind power facilities. Utilization ofmarine areas for the fishing industry has been given precedence in Japan, and it would be difficult to introduce
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●20

Survey and Evaluation of the Environmental Impact of Offshore Wind Power Generation: Future Outlook
Based on Examples from Europe
such a comprehensive management plan, as is, for use andconservation of marine coastal areas. Still, when installing
an offshore wind power facility, it is extremely important toselect a suitable site at the planning stage in order to prevent
environmental impacts. Foreseeing the level of impacts thefacility would have on the surrounding environment, basedon the preliminary baseline survey results and existing findings, and establishing planning methods that include preventative measures against these impacts is one of the mosturgent tasks.
When an artificial structure appears on the surface ofthe sea or underwater, marine organisms will appear andattach themselves to the structure. These organisms vary in
species and numbers depending on the structure's materialand shape. Fish may be attracted to the structure looking
for food and shelter, and seabirds and large predators maygather to feed on the fish, thereby creating new habitats. In
Europe, there have also been cases in which an anchoredoffshore windmill or a structure installed on the seabedfunctions like an artificial reef. Because of their similarity
to artificial reefs, these offshore wind power structures arecalled windmill artificial reefs and their effects are attracting attention. It is expected that the artificial reef functionsof offshore wind power facilities will allow the facilities toserve as hot spots that enhance biodiversity and as places
for the production of fish resources that gather around thefacilities. On the other hand, there are also reports that thesefacilities may act as stepping stones to promote the expansion and distribution of non-indigenous species in offshore
waters as well as there being possible impacts on water
quality and seafloor sediment near the structures due tothe accumulation and collapse of sessile/immobile organisms. It should also be noted that existing habitats, such as
sand and mud seafloors, will be lost in conjunction with the
emergence of new hard substratum habitat.

Looking Ahead
In addition to the above mentioned demands for developing renewable energy resources in the seas surrounding
Japan, including offshore wind power, as a measure against
global warming, and promoting their use for purposessuch as the revitalization of local human communities are
considered to be an important task for Japan, a resourcepoor country. In that sense, it is desirable for the country tostart focusing now on building a foundation for developing
offshore energy sources that can coexist with marine ecosystems and biological resources. In addition to developing
methods to investigate and evaluate environmental impacts
by learning from European examples, it will be necessary

Floating offshore wind power facility off Sakiyama, Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture (Photo:
Professor Ryo Kawabe, Nagasaki University)

to make efforts to involve major stakeholders, including
fishermen, in discussions on the design, site selection andperiod of operation of the wind power facilities from theirplanning stage, so as to gain understanding while presenting, in an easy-to-understand manner, scientific data regarding the reef effects that have the potential to create new
habitats for seafood.
In contrast to European countries located in high latitude
climate zones where the number of offshore wind power
facilities has been rapidly increasing, the waters around
Japan have a relatively high water temperature and so will
likely see far more impacts from organisms attaching towind power facilities. The reef effect may be an important
point of discussion that needs to be emphasized to gain thecooperation of local fishing communities, but there is stillinsufficient scientific knowledge about the actual conditions of organisms attaching to undersea structures as well
as regarding the ecological characteristics of the fish thatgather there. Japan has already accumulated a wealth ofresearch findings on the evaluation of effects of artificial
reefs on fish attraction, and it is hoped that research andinvestigations in this field will progress, employing a wide
range of perspectives from basic research to practical applications.
■

1) Refer to the following URL for the study group's report : http://www.env.go.jp/press/103898.html

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●21

Japan’s Withdrawal from the IWC and its Whaling Industry[KEYWORDS] International Whaling Commission (IWC) / Commercial Whaling Moratorium / Whales

MORISHITA Joji
Professor, Department of Marine Policy and Culture, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology(Ocean Newsletter No. 464, 5 December 2019)Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission on June 30th 2019, and restarted its
whaling operations within its 200nm EEZ on July 1st. There were criticisms that by this decision
Japan is turning its back on international society, and that it should have persevered at thenegotiating table. However, the decision came only after 30 years of negotiations with anti-whaling
countries, in which all attempts at discussion and compromise in scientific, legal, economic, andcultural areas ended in failure. We must ask now where the whaling issue is headed.

Japan's Withdrawal from the IWC
Japan announced on December 26, 2018, that it would
withdraw from the International Whaling Commission(IWC) and that from July 1, 2019, it would resume commercial whaling in waters within 200 nautical miles ofJapan. This decision was met with surprise, both insideand outside Japan, and the Japanese media also criticizedthe decision, calling it a "simplistic decision," wondering
if "Japan was turning its back on the international community," and saying that "more tenacious negotiations should
continue."

From Scientific Discussion to the Charismatic
Animal Concept
As a result of anti-whaling movements that have been
active since the 1970s, the IWC adopted a moratorium oncommercial whaling in 1982, and there has been a widelyspread perception that the moratorium was issued to bancommercial whaling permanently because overfishing had
exhausted whale stocks. However, Paragraph 10 (e) of the
Schedule to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), which prescribes the moratorium,
clearly stipulates that catch limits for the killing for commercial purposes of whales shall be zero for the time being
because there was uncertainty about the scientific information necessary for managing whale stocks (please note thatit did not ban whaling), and during the moratorium period
the IWC will undertake a comprehensive assessment of thescientific information and, by 1990, consider the establishment of catch limits other than zero. This is the procedure
for resuming whaling.
Japan conducted whale research programs (researchwhaling) in accordance with this provision, and the IWC
Scientific Committee developed the Revised Management
Procedure (RMP) that could calculate catch quotas which
would not deplete whale stocks. Now, many types of whale
stocks have recovered and can be used sustainably. Dr.
Phillip Hammond from the United Kingdom, a key member
and the then Chair of the Scientific Committee, declared in

The 67th Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held in Florianopolis, Brazil, in September 2018 (The author, at the center of the stage, was the Chair of the Meeting)1993 that the scientific problems of whaling management
had been resolved. In response, anti-whaling countries set
new hurdles for the resumption of whaling. They claimthat strict monitoring and enforcement measures are necessary because, even if there is a scientifically appropriate
catch quota, it is possible that poaching and smuggling will
occur, which may result in non-observance of the quota.
Discussions about these monitoring and enforcement measures were carried out over the course of approximately
50 meetings and 15 years since the first half of the 1990s.
In this process, Japan accepted the proposed measures one
after another, such as having international observers aboard
Japan’s whaling vessels, tracking whaling ships via satellite, preventing poaching and smuggling through analysis
and registration of DNA in whale meat, as well as bearing
the enormous cost burden for such measures. Just as these
discussions on surveillance measures started deliveringresults, anti-whaling nations declared that they would notagree to the resumption of whaling even after the surveillance and enforcement measures were established.
Moreover, in anti-whaling countries whales haveemerged as a special animal that should be protected under
any circumstances. This idea is called the “charismaticanimal concept,” and this category includes elephants,
tigers, and wolves. Charismatic animals are basically large
vertebrates, known by everyone including children, endanOcean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●22

Japan’s Withdrawal from the IWC and its Whaling Industry
gered (or thought to be endangered), and not regarded asresources. There is a fundamental difference between theview that regards whales as charismatic animals and theview that regards whales as marine biological resources thatcan be sustainably used.

proposals. This proposal was also rejected by a vote, whichmeans that the IWC rejected even the concept of peacefulcoexistence.
In response to this, Japan decided to leave the IWC.

"Peace Negotiations" and their Failure
Conflicts over whaling adversely affect the relationships between countries that are normally friendly to eachother and bring about emotional conflicts among their citizens. Furthermore the radical anti-whaling movement has
engaged in violence and sabotage that can lead to major
accidents in whaling research. Concerned with these situations, successive IWC chairs have proposed and led avariety of "peace negotiations" aimed at alleviating the conflicts. But all such efforts have failed. Details of these pastefforts can be found in the references provided at the end of
this article, but, as a natural course of any "peace negotiations" in which a compromise is sought, a middle groundbetween the two sides is proposed as a goal of negotiations.
The proposed final goal, being a middle ground between
the arguments of both sides, naturally requires the involved
parties to accept some form of whaling. This unavoidable
nature of compromise was the source of failure for all the"peace negotiations." Any and all whaling is unacceptable in anti-whaling nations that see whales as charismaticanimals that should be protected under any circumstances.
In fact, at past IWC meetings, Japan even went so far as topropose a very small catch limit of minke whales (even justone) whose stocks are in good condition for Japan’s coastal
whaling communities, but this proposal was also rejected.
As seen in these past developments, these anti-whaling
nations would oppose seeking any sort of middle-groundcompromise. They will oppose any compromise proposalthat would allow any sort of whaling, even on a small scale,and even if the compromise proposal includes elementsthat will bring great benefits to the anti-whaling nations(for example, designating the southern Atlantic Ocean as awhale sanctuary).
Negotiations have been held over the course of 30
years to explore all possibilities, but no compromise has
been achieved. In response to this, Japan proposed a new
approach at the 2018 IWC Meeting instead of seeking acompromise as before. The proposal can be thought of as"living apart under the same roof," that the parties "agree
to disagree" and will avoid interfering with each other as
much as possible while living under the one roof of the
IWC, which should make it easy for both sides to pass their

A small coastal whaling vessel engaged in commercial whaling in coastal areas (©Japan
Small-Type Whaling Association)

Whaling in Japan and its Symbolism
Withdrawal from the IWC resolved Japan's policy goalof resuming commercial whaling, and in doing so it will benecessary for Japan to show to the international community
in a highly transparent manner that the resumption of whaling is scientifically sustainable and that conservation andmanagement measures are being adhered to under appropriate monitoring and enforcement structures. It is also important to make the reopened whaling socio-economically
viable and stable for local communities.
On the other hand, the whaling issue is not just a question of whether or not Japanese whaling can be resumed.
It has to do with much wider issue that specific values
should never be imposed on the use of any sort of animal
as a resource as long as sustainable use is possible. Both forfood security and for conservation of biodiversity, ensuring
diversity shall be the key to resilience. However, the international community is advancing monopolies under intolerance, sentimentalism, and so-called globalism. The whaling
issue is a symbol of these wider problems.
■● Reference: Joji Morishita, "Withdrawal from the IWC and International Negotiations," 2019, Seizando-Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.
● Reference webpage: "Whaling Affairs," Fisheries Agency of Japan

Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●23

Can Maritime Boundary Delimitation Disputes Be Resolved?
[KEYWORDS] Maritime Boundary Delimitation / United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea / Peaceful Settlement of Disputes

SAKAMOTO Shigeki
Professor, Doshisha University(Ocean Newsletter No. 468, 5 February 2020)

The maritime boundary delimitation disputes between Japan and China and Japan and Korea
have become serious political issues with little prospects of resolution in sight. As the issue with
China concerns a territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands and with Korea over TakeshimaIsland, if these are not resolved the base lines necessary for sea boundary delimitation cannot be
determined, therefore leaving the states involved without agreement on their borders. In order toresolve these maritime border disputes peacefully, based on international law rather than throughforce, direct negotiations as well as consideration of international arbitration by third-party disputesettlement mechanism should be considered.

Why Dispute Over Maritime Boundary Delimitation Arises
While a state's land borders can be easily understood theoceans are all connected and spread round the world, somany people wonder why disputes arise between countries
over maritime boundary delimitation. Behind these disputes
are conflicts between states over the acquisition of marine
resources. There was an energy revolution in the 1960s inwhich states switched from coal to oil, and various statesembarked on developing their coastal continental shelf forsea-bed and subsoil oil resources and natural gas. At the
UN General Assembly in 1967, Malta's Ambassador Arvid
Pardo made a speech in which he warned that the seabedand subsoil around the world could be divided up amongst
developed coastal states, so the extent of the continental
shelf should be clarified, a deep seabed regime differingfrom that of the continental shelf should be established on
the seabed beyond the continental shelf, and the resources
contained therein should become the common heritage ofmankind. With this famous speech, the 1982 United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (hereinafter UNCLOS)
was concluded.

Framework of the United Nations on the Lawof the Sea
UNCLOS adopts two ideas as the basic ideas forming
order on the ocean. One idea is the concept of the classification of maritime areas. In this, a coastal state's territorial
waters are defined as extending 12 nautical miles from thecoast, and, at the same time, the area up to 200 nautical
miles from the coast is newly defined as the coastal state's
exclusive economic zone (EEZ), thereby recognizing thecoastal state's sovereign rights for exploration, exploitation,and management of the waters, seabed and subsoil up to
200 nautical miles from the coast. The other idea is a system of subject-specific regulations for navigation, fishing,
resource development, maritime environmental protection,and maritime scientific research and surveys. In doing so,
the important issue becomes to what extent coastal states
can exclude other states and monopolize resource explo-

ration and exploitation. States separated by less than 400
nautical miles and neighboring countries will thus havedisputes over maritime boundary delimitation for their continental shelf and EEZ.
At the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of
the Sea, which adopted UNCLOS, there were two opposing ideas about the criteria for maritime demarcation. One
was the principle of an "equidistance plus special circumstances" and the other was an "equitable principle plus relevant circumstances." However, UNCLOS does not adopt
a specific standard, and states with disputes over maritime
demarcation have settled the disputes by agreement on thebasis of international law. UNCLOS defines rules for maritime demarcation, so many people think that states should
negotiate in accordance with the rules, but it is not that simple. To illustrate, let's consider each state in the disputes.

What is China Disputing?
Japan asserts that both continental shelf and EEZ maritime delimitation should be demarcated based on equidistant median lines, but China asserts a sovereign right to
the Okinawa Trough as a natural prolongation of the continental shelf, and so the dispute continues. As the conceptof the EEZ has taken root since the adoption of UNCLOS,
the continental shelf has been subsumed into the 200 nautical mile distance criteria and the concept of the continental
shelf has been absorbed into the EEZ system. For states
opposite each other across the East China Sea, such as
Japan and China, the boundary line / equidistant line areseen as a single criterion.
In cases where the demarcation for the continental shelf
has not been decided, as with Japan and China, then Article
74 (2) and Article 83 (2) of UNCLOS stipulate that "if noagreement can be reached within a reasonable period oftime, the States concerned shall resort to the procedures
provided for in Part XV (Settlement of Disputes)." However, China has deposited with the UN Secretary-Generala declaration to the effect that it is exempted from Part XV
Section 2 (Compulsory Procedures Entailing Binding DeciOcean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●24

Can Maritime Boundary Delimitation Disputes Be Resolved?
sions) because of Article 298 (1) (a) disputes related to sea
boundary delimitation, (b) disputes concerning militaryactivity, and (c) disputes in respect of which the UN Security Council is exercising the functions assigned to it by the
UN charter. In other words, the path for Japan to commit
this maritime delimitation issue to a compulsory arbitration
tribunal has been closed.
The only way to refer this issue to the International Courtof Justice (ICJ) is to conclude a special agreement between
Japan and China, but China is unlikely to consent to such a
special agreement. As a result, there is no resolution to thisissue other than diplomatic negotiations.
Unfortunately, there are difficult issues between thetwo countries, such as those concerning sovereignty over
the Senkaku Islands (Chinese name: Diaoyu Islands), andnegotiations to realize a joint development agreement havebeen suspended. There is now a need for the two states towork towards resuming talks within the larger frameworkof Japan-China friendship.

Shirakaba Gas Field (Photo: Provided by the Ministry of Defense)

Why is South Korea Disputing?
South Korea and Japan both insist on a median line as acriterion for demarcating the EEZ, and in that sense bothstates have agreed to apply the equidistant median criteria.
Japan insists on using the "Takeshima-Ulleungdo MedianLine" with Takeshima (South Korean name: Dokdo) as areference point, while South Korea insisted until 2006 on
the "Ulleungdo-Oki Median Line."
However, Korea changed its attitude in 2006 and changed
the reference point for the median line from Ulleungdo
to Takeshima. Japan, on the other hand, has traditionallyinsisted on the "Takeshima-Ulleungdo Median Line" withTakeshima as the reference point, so demarcation negotiations were deadlocked. As a result, it became difficult todemarcate the EEZ without resolving the territorial dispute
over Takeshima. Even if Japan were to propose, in orderto break the impasse, "to stop using the Takeshima as an
EEZ reference point because it is an island over which
there are sovereignty disputes," it is thought that South
Korea would not accept it. This is because South Korea hastaken the position that the Takeshima dispute itself does notexist, and as such the Japanese proposal cannot possibly be
accepted.
South Korea is also unlikely to settle the dispute in
an international court. Japan proposed appealing theTakeshima issue to the ICJ in 1954 and 1962, but this
proposals were rejected by South Korea. The Japanese
proposal of jointly appealing the Takeshima issue to the
ICJ was also rejected by South Korea, saying it would be "acomplete waste of time and money." As such, it can be said
that South Korea, which has taken the position that there is
no Takeshima dispute, is highly unlikely to refer the disputeto the ICJ.
Why is it Difficult to Settle East Asian Maritime Delimitation Disputes?
East Asian disputes between Japan and China andbetween Japan and South Korea over maritime delimitation
have become important political issues whose resolution is
uncertain. Behind these issues are the existence of territorial disputes over islands. If the dispute with China over the
Senkaku Islands and the sovereignty dispute with South
Korea over the Takeshima Island are not resolved, thenthe problem is that agreement on demarcation cannot bereached because the maritime demarcation reference points
are not decided.
Under the single-party control of the Communist Party,
China has no intention of entrusting issues of sovereignty to
third parties, not even to the United Nations. South Korea,
unlike China, is a democratic country, but there is fierce
competition between the conservative and reform parties,
and political power will be lost if an appeal over the issue
is denied by an international court. The recent worseningof Japan-South Korea relations has additionally further
reduced the prospects of resolving this issue.
Nevertheless, the parties to the disputes should find a way
to entrust the issues to third party dispute resolution institutions, such as through direct negotiations and mediation soas to settle the maritime demarcation conflicts peacefully
and based on international law, not force. This is because
Japan, China, and South Korea are all member states of
the United Nations, and the United Nations imposes on its
member states the obligation to settle their international disputes by peaceful means under Article 2 (3) of the Charter■of the United Nations.
Ocean Newsletter
Selected Papers / No.25●25

Iceland's Chairmanship Program for the Arctic Council and theRole of Japan[KEYWORDS] Arctic Council / Iceland / 3rd Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM3)

HONDA Yusuke
Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, Polar Cooperation Research Centre, Kobe University / Research Fellow, Ocean Policy Research Institute, The Sasakawa
Peace Foundation(Ocean Newsletter No. 469, 20 February 2020)

On 7 May 2019, Finland handed over the Chairmanship of the Arctic Council to Iceland at its 11th
Ministerial Meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland. The Icelandic Chairmanship runs for two years (20192021), until the next Ministerial meeting. Iceland will co-host the third Arctic Science Ministerial
Meeting (ASM3) with Japan to discuss increased international collaboration on Arctic science,
which was originally scheduled to be held in November 2020 but postponed to May 2021 due tothe COVID-19 pandemic.

Iceland’s Arctic Council Chairmanship program for 2019-2021
Iceland puts four priorities for the Arctic Council Chairmanship program with “Together Towards a Sustainable
Arctic” as an overarching theme.1) The theme of its program
reflects Iceland’s commitment to the principle of sustainable development and refers to the necessity of close cooperation between the states and peoples of the Arctic region
and beyond. With regard to the first priority, “the Arctic
Marine Environment”, Iceland puts particular importanceon combating marine plastic pollution in the Arctic andplans to convene the international symposium on plastics in
the Arctic in March 2021 in Reykjavík. 2) It also mentions
an improvement of the utilization of living marine resources
for driving sustainable economic growth in the Arctic
coastal communities and promotion of safe and sustainableshipping in the Arctic. The second priority, “Climate andGreen Energy Solutions”, highlights the importance ofeach member state taking actions to address climate changein accordance with their respective international commitments and national policies with noting that the impactsof climate change not only affect the environment of the
Arctic but also the economic and social wellbeing of Arctic
communities. With the aim of promoting the wellbeing of
the approximately four million people living in the Arctic,
the third priority, “People and Communities of the Arctic”,
focuses on three areas of work: new economic opportunities
in a sustainable manner, reliable and affordable telecommunications and gender equality, in collaboration with relevant
stakeholders. With regard to the fourth priority, a “Stronger
Arctic Council”, noting that a key strength of the Arctic
Council lies in the constructive cooperation, Iceland states
to strive to enhance close consultations between the Member States and the Permanent Participants as well as mutually beneficial collaboration with Observers. Iceland also
refers to strengthen cooperation between the Arctic Council
and the Arctic Economic Council, a group of Arctic business stakeholders. As its overarching theme indicates that
Iceland’s Arctic Council Chairmanship program gives fullconsideration to the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, environmental, and social (humanrights).

Japan-Iceland Cooperation on the Arctic
Iceland is very active in collaborating with Japan, an
observer in the Arctic Council. Shortly after assuming thechairmanship of the Arctic Council, Iceland´s Minister of
Education, Science and Culture, Lilja Alfreðsdóttir visited
Japan in May 2019 and confirmed close cooperation for theASM3, which was originally scheduled to be held in October 2020, in Japan and co-hosted by Iceland, also agreed toadvance bilateral cooperation in science and technology. On
this occasion, Minister Alfreðsdóttir also paid courtesy visit
to Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace
Foundation and recognized the importance of promoting
cooperation for Arctic policy and scientific research withprivate sectors.
In September 2019, Iceland's Ambassador on Arctic
Affairs and Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials Einar Gunnarsson visited Japan and made a presentation on Iceland's
Chairmanship Program of the Arctic Council for stakeholders in Japan including embassies of Arctic Council
countries, the government of Japan and the Arctic science
community at the seminar hosted by Embassy of Iceland inTokyo. At the seminar, Ambassador Gunnarsson expressed
his expectation for further scientific cooperation and industrial collaboration between Iceland and Japan on marine
plastics issues and the blue bioeconomy, 3) which are areas

Exchange of views meeting at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. Center right is Lilja D.
Alfreðsdóttir, Iceland's Minister of Education, Science and Culture.

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Iceland's Chairmanship Program for the Arctic Council and the Role of Japanof particular importance to Iceland.

Ambassador on Arctic Affairs Einar Gunnarsson explaining Iceland's Chairmanship
Program at a seminar.

The 3rd Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM3) in
Tokyo
The Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM) is a ministerial-level meeting aimed at strengthening international
cooperation in Arctic science and research, and use of its
knowledge to decision making process, also known as animportant international forum for Arctic cooperation sameas the Arctic Council. The first-ever meeting was hosted by
the United States in September 2016, and the second meeting was co-hosted by Germany, Finland, and the European
Commission in October 2018 with participation of morethan 20 countries, including the Arctic Council member
states and Japan. At the ASM2 meeting, the proposal submitted by Iceland and Japan for the ASM3 to be held inJapan on 21 to 22 November 2020 and co-hosted by Iceland
was unanimously agreed. 4) However, due to the COVID-19
situation, the host governments officially decided to postpone the meeting to 8 and 9 May 2021. It is the first time
for the ASM to be held in Asia and is quite important forJapan for convening the meeting in Japan from the perspective of promoting Japan’s Arctic policy and research.

time to review and reconsider the Arctic policy and Arctic
cooperation in Japan. Additionally, upon the completionof the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) project,a national flagship project funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT),
in March 2020, the subsequent project called ArCS-II has
started from FY2020 for five years. Furthermore, although
it has been postponed to May 2021 due to the COVID19 pandemic, the “Arctic Circle Japan Forum”, a regional
forum of the “Arctic Circle Assembly” which is the largest
network of international dialogue on the Arctic, also known
as the “Arctic Davos forum”, was to be held in association
with the ASM3 in November 2020 in Tokyo. This forum
will be organized in cooperation with the Sasakawa Peace
Foundation and the Arctic Circle Secretariat. In light ofthe domestic and international situation with regard to the
Arctic, the Polar Cooperation Research Centre of Kobe
University will hold the 13th Polar Law Symposium online
in November 2020 and its 14th symposium will be held in
November 2021 at Kobe University, Japan. 5) This will be
the first time the event is being held in Asia region. It is
expected that Japan's Arctic policy research will be further
developed and contribute to sustainable development in the
Arctic region through these processes and opportunities. ■Towards Arctic Policy Research After and
Beyond 2020
It can be said that the year 2020 is the “Year of the
Artic” for Japan for various reasons. It is not just because
an important international conference on the Arctic known
as ASM3 will be held in Japan. Another reason is that theyear 2020 marks five years since the “Japan's Arctic Policy”, which is the first-ever comprehensive and strategic
Arctic policy has been adopted, and mid-years since the“Third Basic Plan on Ocean Policy” has firstly included
the policy for the Arctic as one of the main measures. It is1) https://arctic-council.org/index.php/en/about-us/arctic-council/iceland-chairmanship2) https://www.arcticplastics2020.is/index.php/en/3) https://arctic-council.org/en/projects/blue-bioeconomy-in-the-arctic-region/4) https://asm3.org/about-asm3/5) https://2020polarlawsymposium.org/

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Marine Education Programs Through School-Museum
Collaborations[KEYWORDS] Environmental Education / School Education / ESD

ITO Yoshihide
Director of Museum and Education (Curator), Administrative Section, Marine Science Museum, School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University(Ocean Newsletter No. 470, 5 March 2020)

The Tokai University Marine Science Museum has set up marine education programs based on its
research results and utilizes them for school education and collaboration with local communities.
The purpose of these programs is to deepen students’ interests in marine fields and develop
individuals who might pursue careers in them. The museum’s education programs currently in use
are the Environmental Education Program Utilizing the Deep-sea Lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox ,and the Marine Education Program Utilizing Ocean Plankton and Whitebait. This article introduces
these marine education programs which have been designed with Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) in mind.

Marine Education Initiatives by the Museum
The Tokai University Marine Science Museum opened
in May 1970 at the northern end of the Miho no Matsubara scenic spot and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in2020. The museum was established in 1962 by Shigeyoshi
Matsumae, founder of Tokai University, who stressed that
"as Japan is surrounded by the ocean, it should look to theocean with its infinite possibilities and aim to become amaritime nation that uses it peacefully." The Marine Science Museum is affiliated with Tokai’s School of Marine
Science and Technology, the first such faculty in Japan (seehttp://www.umi.muse-tokai.jp/).
In addition to its activities, it has given back its educational and research know-how, accumulated over halfa century, to the local community and society. Since
2000, the Marine Science Museum has been promoting
school-museum collaboration initiatives that aim to use its
know-how for school education. Beginning in 2013 withexchanges at local elementary schools in Shimizu City,
the museum started dispatching curators to schools to giveclasses. Every year, the author conducts science classes
for 5th graders from May to July and for 6th graders from
October and December, and during other times, I give
lessons in environmental education, marine education andmarine-related career education as part of "the periods for
integrated studies" offered under the Japanese school system (hereinafter referred to as “integrated studies”) in waysthat fit the students' needs and ages of each class. Though
I mainly give visiting lectures/classes at local elementary
schools, I have also made a point of traveling to schools
in other prefectures to give them using the materials andequipment I bring from the museum.
Under the museum's educational initiatives that teach
topics in the natural sciences in an interdisciplinary way,
we have been working for the past 20 years to develop
programs that teach educational topics related to environmental education and to utilize such programs to meet theneeds of a variety of student groups ranging from 5th and6th graders to adult extension classes. From all the lessons I
have conducted under these initiatives, I will here introduce
three of them: Activities in the Environmental Education
Program Utilizing the Deep-sea Lancetfish, Alepisaurus
ferox , Visiting Lectures/Classes Using Ocean Plankton
and Whitebait, and Collaborative Projects Between HighSchools and the University's Museum.

Activities in the Environmental Education Program Utilizing the Deep-sea Lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox
This program originated from a study on anomalous phenomena in lancetfish (1971) by Tadashi Kubota, Professor
Emeritus at Tokai University, as well as research conducted from 1964 to 1983 on the phenomenon of sea debris
appearing in the stomach contents of lancetfish. I took over
the research and started compiling records from 2001 to thepresent, comparing the 19 years of data from 2001 with thatof the 20 years from 1964, and treating it as an indicator of
marine debris. According to the latest records, there was a
62.2% appearance rate of sea debris in stomach contents
for the 1964-1983 period, and an increase to 71.9% for the
2001-May 2019 period.
One issue we have with this program is that it is difficult
to obtain the teaching materials. The lancetfish, to begin
with, is a deep-sea fish that normally lives at depths of
400 to 1,400m in the northern and southern Pacific Ocean,
the northern and southern Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian
Ocean excluding the polar regions, and is thus difficult toacquire. However, due to the seafloor topography of Suruga
Bay and seasonal wind influences, there is a chance for
upwelling currents to wash lancetfish ashore on the Miho
coastline, and we have obtained an average of 9 lancetfish
per year in the 19 years since 2001. However, this is notenough to meet the needs for lessons in other prefectures,and even though we sometimes show pictures taken when
dissecting the fish, it is best if we can show students thereal fish. Therefore, we would truly appreciate it if those
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Marine Education Programs Through School-Museum Collaborations
who support our initiative help us with collecting the fish
washed ashore. This program is unique in that it can only
be made possible when we are blessed with people who
support us and nature. I made a presentation about this program under the title of "Environmental education utilizing
the deep-sea lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox )" at the 6th International Aquarium Congress held in December 2004 at theMonterey Bay Aquarium in California. At the time, there
had not been any lectures or presentations about programs
using fish and sea debris as teaching materials for environmental education, so it attracted much attention from theparticipants.
It all started in 2002 when I was involved in developing lessons for the comprehensive learning hours for 5th
graders at Shimizu Okitsu Elementary School. Throughthis project, I gained an opportunity to incorporate the program in classes at local elementary schools. At the time, it
was a transition period when the comprehensive learning
hours had been newly introduced into the national curriculum guidelines, and there were creative and innovativeideas being introduced at elementary schools nationwide.
Shimizu Okitsu Elementary School continues to use thisprogram even today as a class to teach its students about
the marine environment. The issue of marine debris has
become a major issue around the world in recent years, andthis program, which uses lancetfish as teaching materials,
started to be used not only in schools but also for projects
conducted by the government and other public bodies
including The Nippon Foundation's Umi-to-Nippon project(2017-2019), while also being utilized widely in training
sessions for companies and other organizations.

ture/classes to local elementary schools in Shizuoka City,
with the contents including a program that incorporates
observation experiments of ocean plankton and the topic
of whitebait. The teaching materials are ocean plankton
collected in the early morning of the day of the class andone microscope for every two students. These microscopes
were obtained through aid from The Nippon Foundation.
Japanese 5th grade elementary school students learn about
small rice fish called medaka during their 5th grade "The
Connections of Life" physiology unit, and this program isused for those lessons. These medaka rice fish (Oryzias latipes ) are endemic to Japan and have been used as scientificteaching material for many years, but their numbers havebeen severely declining all over the country and they are nolonger a familiar creature to students. I therefore tried using
whitebait fish instead of medaka rice fish as teaching material that students would be familiar with. When conducting
the class, I would always start out by explaining that somewhitebait fish have red spots on their belly, which people
rarely notice when they eat them. The color results fromthe whitefish feeding on zooplankton. Mentioning thiszooplankton topic as I talk about the findings from the dissection of whitefish would always stimulate the students’curiosity and lead easily to subsequent observations ofocean plankton. Through this, students learn that their foodis directly connected to the ocean’s food chain of creaturesthat eat and are eaten; as a result they realize the importanceof preserving and taking good care of the oceans. We hope
to continue utilizing this program as part of marine education at schools.

Education Program Results and Future Prospects

A plastic bag from the stomach of a lancetfish that drifted ashore at Miho Beach in
January 2000

Giving Visiting Lectures Using Ocean Plankton and Whitebait
Since 2013, the museum has been organizing visiting lec-

The educational programs of our museum aim to stimulate students’ interests in marine fields so as to develop
future talented individuals that might want to enter into
these fields and enhance their abilities. In an example
developed from compulsory education, Urawa Minami
High School, a public high school in Saitama City which is
not near the sea, has been conducting a project comprising
the more sophisticated versions of the three aforementioned
programs, Lancetfish Dissection, Ocean Plankton Observations, and Whitefish Dissection along with Observationsof Organisms near Ports every summer since August 2009,
through collaboration between the high school and theMarine Science Museum. The high school students usually do not have many opportunities to experientially learn
about the ocean, so they participate actively in the classes
and learn eagerly about the ocean. Many students evencome back to take the classes again and again, saying with
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Marine Education Programs Through School-Museum Collaborations
shining eyes, "I want to learn more about the sea" and "Iwant to pursue a career in a marine field." Watching themhas made us realize the importance of promoting marine
education for high school students who are interested inseeking more specialized learning opportunities for developing marine studies even further.
Going forward, we would also like to incorporate ESD(Education for Sustainable Development) initiatives into
the marine education program, together with our activities
up until this point.
■

Every summer, 20 high school students who sign up for our program visit the museum
and take part in a 2-day, 1-night hands-on seaside training.

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