The season's first Pacific saury fishing boat docked early Saturday at a port in Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan.
The vessel offloaded a catch of only around 4 tons, less than 20 percent of last year's first haul.
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.
The season's first Pacific saury catch has arrived at a port in Hokkaido, northern Japan. But the volume was only about 1 percent of that for same time last year.
Four of 12 boats that set sail from the port in the town of Akkeshi on August 15 returned with the catch on Sunday. The remaining eight did not catch anything.