Resource Depletion

~Late post for topic of July~

Many kinds of resources are suffered from depletion today, but as a regional ambassador from Japan, I'd like to think about reduction of fishery resources. Japan is one of the biggest consumer of fishes, so I think Japan has responsibility on this problem.

Statistically, fish consumption in the world had tripled from 1950 to 1980. Nowadays, 19 percent of fishery resources is in excessive consumption and 8 percent is in depletion. This is serious problem. You know, I love eating fishes, my favorite food is sushi. Fishery resources are originally sustainable resource if you consume in proper way. However, these days, because of increase in population (and maybe because of the spread of Japanese food?) the consumption of fishes are increasing more and more. In Japan, traditionally, Japanese fishermen had considered about sustainability of their fishing. However, recently, the number of fishing boats are increasing and many of them are not considering about sustainability of marine resources.

Solutions

1.    Way of fishing

We can protect marine resources by choosing sustainable way of fishing. Let's look at the differences between sustainable/unsustainable fishing way.

<Unsustainable fishing>

・Trawl fishing

Throw net into the ocean and draw it. It can destroy marine environment and disrupt marine ecosystem.

・Round haul net fishing

Catch a large group of fishes by a large net. In this way, you can capture a lot of fishes in one time, but it can be the cause of excessive fishing.   

<Sustainable fishing>

・Pole and line fishing

Fishing with pole and line. This way doesn?t heat fishes and doesn't cause excessive fishing.

In my view, sustainable fishing way require higher skill than unsustainable one, so education for fishermen is important to avoid excessive fishing.

2.    Proper consumption

Also, we can protect marine ecosystem by choosing what we buy.

To choose right products, MSC ecolabel can help you. MSC ecolabel is used for seafoods caught by sustainable fishing way. For details, please check the link below.

https://www.msc.org/get-certified/use-the-msc-ecolabel