industry interest in gaining access to tliese coastal EEZs 

 (for details, see Section VII-Access to Foreign Fishing 

 Grounds). 



Vessel statistics for the Japanese southern trawl 

 fishery show that the southwest Atlantic fleet decreased 

 from 27 to 7 trawlers between 1987 and 1990 

 (appendix J) while tlie overall southern trawler squid 

 catch decreased from 90,000 t to 10,000 t (appendix 

 M). Altliough catch by species by fishing ground 

 statistics for tlie soutliem trawl fleet are not available, 

 a good deal of this squid was probably caught in the 

 Soutliwest Atlantic. 



In the high-seas of the Northwest Atlantic. 

 Japanese trawlers have been fishing primarily for 

 redfish, capelin, and squid with allocatioiLS granted by 

 tlie International Commission for the Nordiwest 

 Atlantic Fisheries and its successor organization, the 

 Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO). 



Japanese southern trawlers have targeted kxill in the 

 high-seas waters of Antarctica. Krill is considered a 

 potential source of protein for human consimiption, but 

 recent attention has focused more on its use as bait or 

 as an animal feed ingredient. A total of 7-8 Japanese 

 trawlers participate aimually in this fishery, with 

 catches ranging from 60,000 to 80,000 tons 

 (appendices J and L). 



Shrimp Trawlers: The Japanese distant-water 

 shrimp trawler fleet has consisted of approximately 60 

 vessels which fish in the Atlantic off the South 

 American countries of Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, 

 and Brazil (Note: Japan secured access to Nicaraguan 

 waters in 1986, but has not fished there because of 

 political instability). The vessels are generally 68GRT 

 class trawlers with 4-5 man crews. As competition 

 with foreign fleets and conditions for access have 

 become increasingly stringent, catch figures have 

 decreased gradually and dropped below the 1,000 t 

 level for the first time in 1990 (appendix N). 



East China Sea Trawlers: This fleet is primarily 

 composed of small trawlers, averaging 135GRT. which 

 target finfish sold on the domestic market. The size of 

 this fleet and its corresponding catch have diminished 

 rapidly in die past 10 years. A total of 213 trawlers 

 caught nearly 200,000 t of fish in 1980, but in 1991 a 

 total of 112 trawlers caught 80,000 t of fish 

 (appendices D and F). The outlook for this fleet is 



particularly bleak because of depleted stocks, aging 

 vessels, and a labor shortage. 



B. Squid Jiggers 



With the demise of the high-seas pelagic squid 

 driftnet fleet, the Japanese squid jigging fleet has 

 become the primary Japanese distant-water squid fleet. 

 Japanese distant-water squid jiggers concentrate dieir 

 effort in two fishing grounds: New Zealand's FEZ and 

 coastal areas of Soudi America (see Section Vll-Access 

 to Foreign Fishing Grounds). During the 1990/91 

 season, 82 Japanese squid jiggers operated in the 

 soudiwestem Atlantic and 29 jiggers operated in New 

 Zealand (appendix O). Tlie fleet has gradually 

 decreased in size from its peak of 172 vessels in the 

 1987/88 season to its 1990/91 level of 1 1 1 vessels. 

 The fleet's catch mirrors the decline in vessel numbers, 

 falling from its peak of 230,000 t in 1987/88 to just 

 117,000 t in 1990/91. 



The most recent vessel and catch data for this fleet 

 indicates a shift in effort from traditional grounds off 

 the Falkland Islands and New Zealand, to new grounds 

 off Argentina, Peru, and Brazil. A total of 33 

 Japanese jiggers caught 28,000 t of squid in the 

 Falkland Islands EEZ in the 1992/93 season, a big 

 decrease from the 76,000 t caught in this fishery during 

 1991/92. The primary reason for this decrease was 

 that most of the effort in die Falklands fishery was 

 shifted to die Argentina EEZ, where Japanese jiggers 

 were allowed to fish for the first time. Japanese 

 jiggers caught 81,000 t of .squid in Argentine waters 

 during the 1992/93 sea.son. The decline in effort 

 continues in New Zealand where 8 Japanese jiggers 

 caught just 3,800 t of squid in the 1992/93 season, 

 compared to 6,100 t in 1991/92. There are 22 

 Japanese jiggers deployed in Peruvian waters which 

 have caught 9,000 t during the still-continuing 1992/93 

 season. Japanese catch in Peru has increased 

 dramatically and reached 41,600 t in 1991/92. The 

 .search for alternative jigging grounds continues in 1993 

 as three Japanese jiggers conduct exploratory fishing 

 off the coast of Brazil.' 



C. Driftnet Vessels 



Japan has conducted distant-water driftnet fisheries 

 for tuna/billfish and .squid in the North Pacific Ocean, 

 and for albacore tuna in the South Pacific. Japan began 

 its squid driftnet fishery in 1978. The fishery targeted 



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