Large Fishing Vessels Return With Poor Saury Catch
The season's first large vessels fishing for Pacific saury have arrived at a port in Hokkaido, northern Japan, with a combined haul amounting to only about one percent of last year's volume.
Two large ships with displacements of over 100 tons returned to Hanasaki Port in Nemuro City on Wednesday. The port has had Japan's largest catches of saury for 10 years in a row.
This year's load weighed in at only about six tons.
Local fisheries cooperatives say 45 large ships have left port since the start of the saury season, but that many of them have suspended their operations and are on their way back without significant catches.
One owner of a large vessel says he has never seen a first haul of saury with so few fish. He says that at this rate, the whole industry will encounter difficulties.
The fish fetched prices of around 36 dollars per kilogram, more than six times the amount for the first catch last year.
