IN BRIEF - Japan and Russia in Ongoing Negotiations Over Salmon and Trout Fishing
JAPAN
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Fisheries cooperation fees to be reduced, with operations expected to proceed ahead of schedule
Negotiations between Japan and Russia regarding salmon and trout fishing are currently underway. These talks, conducted via web conference from March 10 to 13, aim to establish the operational terms for small salmon and trout drift net fishing within 200 nautical miles of Japan.
The discussions focus on fishing conditions within 200 nautical miles of each country, based on the suspended Japan-Russia Offshore Fisheries Agreement. The negotiations also involve intergovernmental consultations concerning Russian salmon and trout.
Japanese fishing gillnetters await the salmon trout season in Russian waters
Japan is represented by Hiromichi Takahashi, Director of the Fisheries Agency's Aquaculture Promotion Department, as the government’s lead representative, alongside officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Fisheries Agency, the Hokkaido government, and fishing organizations. The Russian side is led by AV Yakovlev, Deputy Director General of the Federal Fisheries Agency, and includes representatives from the Federal Fisheries Agency, the Border Guard Agency, and other relevant authorities.
According to the Pacific Small Salmon and Trout Fisheries Association, chaired by Oda Tsukasa, last year 20 vessels under 14 tons went out to sea, catching only around 400 tons of chum and pink salmon—just 20% of the allocated fishing quota of 2,050 tons.
TAISHAN — To Lu Zice, discarded oyster shells are treasures. Taishan, a county-level city administered by Jiangmen in Guangdong province, generates over 100,000 metric tons of waste oyster shells annually, threatening the environment.
Photo: ChinaDaily
To solve this, Guangdong Bevan Biology Co, founded by Lu, processes 50,000 to 60,000 tons of shells annually, yielding products worth over 20 million yuan ($2.9 million). Over the next three years, Lu plans to scale production to 100,000 tons, valued at over 100 million yuan. The company plans to expand further to process 150,000 to 200,000 tons annually, effectively eliminating Jiangmen's oyster waste.
Collaborating with the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lu recently partnered with Zhu Ronghua, Chairman of Qi Yong Tang Health Technology (Guangdong) Co. In March, they joined forces to convert aquaculture waste into high-value items like soil conditioners and ecological powder coatings. Historically used in building materials since the Tang and Ming dynasties, oyster shell products now drive a sustainable, full-scale industrial chain along the South China coast.
Japan’s bluefin tuna hauls are surging nationwide, forcing officials to impose strict restrictions or suspend fishing entirely as some prefectures race toward their annual limits at an unprecedented pace.
According to the Fisheries Agency, the April catch of large bluefin tuna weighing 30 kilograms or more reached a staggering 320.7 tons. This figure marks a historic record for the month since the current management system began in 2018, nearly doubling the volume recorded the previous year.
Smaller bluefin tuna weighing less than 30 kilograms also hit record highs for April, increasing by 10.4 percent to 300.6 tons.
Pacific bluefin tuna fishing is managed under strict international agreements, which subject Japan's waters to annual catch quotas starting each fiscal year in April.
The rapid surge has put immediate pressure on local limits. Fukui and Toyama prefectures have already exhausted more than 50 percent of their quotas for large bluefin tuna, while Kochi has surpassed the 40-percent mark. For smaller tuna, Fukushima Prefecture has already burned through over 90 percent of its allocation, and Fukui is past 50 percent.
KUNAK: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) detained a purse seine fishing vessel and a pump boat off Pulau Tabawan on Saturday for suspected violations of the Fisheries Act 1985.
Photo: MMEA
Lahad Datu Maritime Zone Director, Maritime Commander Dzulfikhar Ali, stated that the vessels were intercepted between 3:30pm and 5:00pm during Op Sejahtera 1/2022 and Op Tiris 4.0.
The first vessel was caught fishing for anchovies 0.37 nautical miles southeast of Kampung Jaya Baru, breaching regulations by operating less than 1.5 nautical miles from the shoreline. A 25-year-old local skipper and two foreign crew members, aged 43 and 57, were detained. The vessel and its catch are valued at RM115,000.
In a second operation 0.23 nautical miles east of Kampung Jaya Baru, a suspicious pump boat was intercepted. The skipper jumped overboard and escaped to land. Authorities discovered fish caught using explosives, seizing the boat and catch valued at RM7,000.
All seized items and suspects were taken to the Lahad Datu Fisheries Jetty for further investigation.
Seeks to Strengthen the Country's Presence in Fishing Grounds and Counterbalance Foreign Fleets
The Argentine Federal Fisheries Council has opened a call for applications to incorporate 18 vessels into the Illex squid fishery. This initiative aims to strengthen the country's presence in Argentine Sea fishing grounds and counterbalance the presence of foreign fleets beyond the 200-mile limit, on the edge of Argentina's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Resolution 6-2026 was approved by a majority vote, with the sole dissenting vote coming from Carlos Liberman, representative of the province of Buenos Aires. It has the support of the National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP).
Author: C. Valdez / La Voz de Galicia | Read the full article here
The Ricardo Fuentes Group has successfully completed another bluefin tuna fishing campaign in Balearic waters. The activity, which began this year on May 19, has been carried out “very positively, without incident and with favorable weather conditions that facilitated the fleet's work,” reports the company, which also highly values ??the earlier start of the campaign, which allowed for the completion of fishing and transfer operations sooner.
The campaign has been a success and has allowed for the location of high-quality, large specimens, a fundamental aspect in this type of fishery, which prioritizes the capture of adult tuna for subsequent transfer and fattening in aquaculture facilities.
Source: iPac.aquacultura | Read the full article here
Cermaq is consolidating its Canadian operations under a newly created company as the salmon farmer continues the integration of the former Grieg Seafood British Columbia business.
Parent company Mitsubishi Corporation said Cermaq’s Canadian subsidiaries will be amalgamated into a new entity, Cermaq British Columbia Ltd., effective June 1. The new company will assume all assets, liabilities, rights and obligations of the existing businesses.
The restructuring follows Cermaq’s acquisition of Grieg Seafood’s operations in British Columbia and Newfoundland last year in a deal valued at approximately NOK 10.2 billion (€946 million).
Source: SalmonBusiness | Read the full article here
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), together with the Ministry of Water Resources, Agriculture and Processing Industry of Kyrgyzstan and international partners, has launched a new initiative to strengthen the country’s aquaculture sector, bringing together key actors in Bishkek for a high-level inception workshop under the project Sustainable Fish Value Chains for Landlocked Developing Countries (SVC4LLDCs).Funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of the Republic of Korea, the project aims to boost the sustainability, productivity and competitiveness of fish value chains in Kyrgyzstan