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Study: Fish Catches in Japan to Decline Due to Global Warming

Posted on: Sunday, 28 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Aug. 27--TOKYO -- Japan can expect to see some of its fish catches decline by as much as 70 percent over the next 100 years due to global warming, an official at the National Research Institute of Fisheries Engineering said Saturday.

The institute made the prediction based on the assumption that water temperatures will have risen by 1.4-2.9 C by 2100. It studied 34 varieties of fish and possible changes in catches at fishing ports.

This is the first study in the world to predict the impact of global warming on fish varieties and regions, the official told Kyodo News.

Ports in Nagasaki and Kagoshima prefectures facing the East China Sea are expected to face 30-70 percent declines in catches of Japanese jack mackerel, chub mackerel, red sea bream and a few other varieties, according to the study.

But catches of Japanese jack mackerel may increase in the Pacific along the eastern Japan region of Kanto and near the Noto Peninsula in central Japan on the Sea of Japan. Oyster catches are also predicted to increase in Hokkaido.

In waters near the western island of Shikoku as well as Kyushu, subtropical fish such as snapper and grouper may be available for fishing, although catches of fish varieties common to those waters now are likely to fall across the board, the study says.

The institute under the Fisheries Research Agency, an independent administrative agency, is located in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture.

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Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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