C-5 Marine Protected Areas in Japanese Fisheries: Case Studies in Kyoto, Shiretoko and Ise Bay.

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1 Marine Protected Areas in Japanese Fisheries: Case Studies in Kyoto, Shiretoko and Ise Bay. Hiroyuki Matsuda 1*, Mitsutaku Makino 2, Juan Carlos Castilla 3, Hiroki Oikawa 1, Yasunori Sakurai 4, Minoru Tomiyama 5 1 Faculty of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University 2 National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Fisheries Research Agency, 3 Pontificia Universidad Catolica De Chile 4 Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University Japan 5 Fisheries Division, Aichi Prefecture Japan *matsuda@ynu.ac.jp Japan has once played an important role of the international institution for marine protected areas (MPAs). Marine park system was established in Japan after the 1 st Conference for World Natural Parks in 1962, Seattle. The first International Conference for Marine Parks was held in 1975, Tokyo, Japan. Despite of it, it is few known MPAs in Japan because fishers and Japan Fisheries Agency do not like to use the term MPAs, rather than fishing ban areas. This is because fishers did not seek legal fishing-ban areas but they did establish fishing-ban areas by themselves. We briefly introduce the institutional history and features of Japanese coastal fishery management, including the past decade s major legislative developments. Unlike fisheries in modern countries, there is no centralized top-down management in traditional fisheries. After Japan was modernized in mid 1960s, the government attempted to centralize the fisheries institution. However, these attempts resulted in a great deal of confusion and disturbance within fisheries societies; thus, Japan still has a decentralized co-management system involving fishers and the government, and ca.98% of Japanese fishers are artisanal. The transaction costs for fisheries management constitute one of the strongest arguments against top-down management systems. In the co-managed system, the costs for monitoring, enforcement, and compliance are shared between the government and local fishers and are remarkably lower than in systems with topdown regulation (Makino and Matsuda, 2005). Kyoto Snow Crab Fisheries Snow crabs are harvested using bottom trawlers. The Kyoto Prefecture Fishery Coordinating Regulation sets the official season for bottom-trawler fishing. Harvests of Kyoto s snow crab have followed a typical boom and the largest harvest volume of 369 t was ecorded in Landings declined dramatically afterwards, to less than 100 t in the late 1970s and 58 t in Overfishing was said to be the cause of the decline. Various resource recovery measures by the Kyoto Bottom Trawlers' Union were introduced beginning in Specifically, a combination of permanent and seasonal marine protected areas (MPAs) were introduced as marine reserves or no-take zones and have been expanded since Permanent MPAs are meant to provide sanctuaries for snow crabs from fishing and were established around the snow crab s critical habitats. Seasonal MPAs are aimed mainly at avoiding bycatches of low-value crabs. Kyoto prefecture government supported these activities with funding and scientific research and advice. As a result, the landing increased from 58 t in 1980 to 195 t in 1999 and the total yield increased from US$ in 1980 to $ in 2001 (Makino 2008). In March 2008, The Kyoto Danish Seine Fishing Federation snow crab and flathead flounder fishery has been certified under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard as a sustainable and well-managed fishery. 59

2 Fig. 1. The area of MPAs and the percentage of temporal fishing ban area of the total fishing ground in snow crab fisheries, Kyoto Prefecture (Makino 2008). Fig. 2. Food web of the Shiretoko World Natural Heritage area as depicted by the Marine Area Working Group of the Scientific Council. AG: arabesque greenling; BT: bighand thornyhead; F: flatfishes; G: greenlings; O: octopus; OP: ocean perch; PH: Pacific herring; PS: Pacific saury; R: rockfish; S: seals; SC: saffron cod; SF: sandfish; SL: sandeel. Grey circles represent taxa that are used by fishers or human, and those catch statistics are compiled. 60

3 Shiretoko World Natural Heritage Shiretoko is a very famous fisheries production area in Japan, and the fisheries sector is the most important industry here. To maintain responsible fisheries, local fishers have implemented a wide range of autonomous measures under a co-management framework. Since the nomination of the peninsula and its surrounding marine areas for UNESCO World Natural Heritage, various measures have been implemented to conserve its outstanding ecosystems. The approach was not to eliminate local fishers from the area, but to place their activities at the core of the management scheme to sustain ecosystem structure and function. That is, fisheries co-management was expanded to ecosystem-based management to achieve ecosystem conservation. In addition, the management plan details the vast food web structure of the Shiretoko site (Fig. 2). Fishers compiled the catch and yield of these taxa of fisheries resources. Most of all species are exploited. Like stomach content monitoring of the top predator, the catch statistics are informative to evaluate ecosystem status (Makino et al. 2008). Fisheries co-management in the Shiretoko World Natural Heritage site was expanded to ecosystem-based management, in which the fisheries sector plays an essential role in management. A marine management plan was drawn up to define the management objectives, strategies to maintain major species, and methods for ecosystem monitoring. A network of coordinating organizations from a wide range of sectors was established to integrate policy measures. Experience from this case could inform ecosystem-based management in other countries where large numbers of artisanal fishers take a wide range of species under a fisheries co-management regime. Adaptive management based on daily operations can be found in autonomous MPAs construction in the Shiretoko WNH area. In 1995, local fishermen divided fishery ground into 34 areas based on local knowledge and experiences, then introduced temporal MPAs into 7 of the 34 areas to conserve fishery resources. One of the spawning grounds of Walleye Pollock was also included in the protected areas. In 2005, additional 6 areas were designated as protected areas (Fig. 3). These protected areas are introduced in voluntary bases, and re-examined every year based on the results of previous year s performance and scientific advices from the local research station. Therefore, it can be said that this decision-making process is adaptive. The important next step would be scientific verification of its validities (Matsuda et al. 2008). Sandeel fishery in Ise and Mikawa Bays Ise Bay is a shallow semi-closed bay located around Nagoya City, Japan, facing Pacific Ocean. One of the major fisheries resources in Ise Bay is Pacific sandeel, Ammodytes personatus. Sandeel juveniles are used in Japan and mainly caught by pelagic trawl fleets. Stock of sandeel in Ise Bay has once collapsed late during 1978 to 1982 because of over-exploitation and environmental deterioration. After this collapse, fishers and local scientists began to conduct the regulatory measures in 1980 on a basis of the collaboration between Aichi and Mie prefectures surrounding Ise and Mikawa Bays. In 1990, the fishers decided three measures, (1) establishment of fishing-ban area (MPA) during the fishing season, (2) decision of the opening day and (3) closing day of sandeel fishery. Because sandeel has a unique spawning behavior of borrowing into sand for aestivation during May to November, we can control the number of spawners by the closeing day of fishing. Protecting spawners for successive reproductive seasons, establishment of autonomous MPA during fishing season is important for adaptive management (Tomiyama et al. 2005). This is because the area of the MPA changes with the escapement stock during the fishing season, according to consultation by local scientists earned by these prefectures (Fig. 4). To operate these adaptive management measures, fisheries cooperative associations of sandeel fishers in Mie and Aichi Prefectures play an important role. 61

4 Fig. 3. Seasonal fishing ban areas for walleye Pollock fisheries in east coast of Shiretoko Peninsula, Japan (map is provided by Rausu Fisheries Cooperative Association). Grids 11, 12 and 16 are spawning ground. Grids 4, 8, 11, 14 and are seasonal fishing ban areas since Grids 1-3 and 5-7 are seasonal fishing ban areas since Fig. 4. Fishing-ban area (MPA) for sandeel fisheries in 2005, Ise and Mikawa Bays, Japan. The area of MPA changed weekly. Grey zones in the right bottom panel represent fishing ground for sandeel in Japan (Tomiyama 2009). 62

5 Discussion There are several similarities between Japanese fisheries and Chilean fisheries (Castilla, in preparation); artisanal fisheries, and territorial use rights in fisheries. However, there are again several differences between them. One of the biggest difference is legitimacy of MPAs. Japan s MPA is often determined by fishers, while Chilean MPA is defined by the government. Japanese fishers do not like legal regulation but seek autonomous management among fishers. Chilean fishers like to add MPAs after they realize the effect of MPAs on sustainable fisheries. In the case of sandeel fisheries in Ise Bay, the area of autonomous MPA is flexible. However, there may be some institution of legally-defined MPA whose area can change weekly. References Makino M (2008) Marine Protected Areas for the Snow Crab Bottom Fishery off Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, In Case Studies in Fisheries Self-governance. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No Rome, Italy, Makino M & Matsuda H (2005) Co-management in Japanese coastal fishery: institutional features and transaction cost. Marine Policy 29: Makino M, Matsuda H, Sakurai Y (2009) Expanding Fisheries Co-management to Ecosystem-based management:a case in the Shiretoko World Natural Heritage area, Japan. Marine Policy 33: Matsuda H, Makino M, Sakurai Y (2009) Development of adaptive marine ecosystem management and co-management plan in Shiretoko World Natural Heritage Site. Biol Cons 142: Tomiyama T (2009) Use of zoning in coastal resource management. Kaiyo (Oceanography), Tokyo, in press. Tomiyama T, Lesage C-M, Komatsu T (2005) Practice of Sandeel Fisheries Management in Ise Bay toward Responsible and Sustainable Fisheries. Global Environmental Research 9: