Saving Seafood

Eel populations are falling, and new protections were defeated. Japan and the US opposed them

December 1, 2025 — Eels are the stuff of nightmares — slimy, snakelike creatures that lay millions of eggs before dying so their offspring can return home to rivers and streams. They’ve existed since the time of the dinosaurs, and some species are more poorly understood than those ancient animals.

Yet they’re also valuable seafood fish that are declining all over the world, leading to a new push for restrictions on trade to help stave off extinction.

Freshwater eels are critically important for the worldwide sushi industry, and some species have declined by more than 90% since the 1980s. The eels have succumbed to a combination of river dams, hydroelectric turbines, pollution, habitat loss, climate change, illegal poaching and overfishing, according to scientists. Some environmental organizations have called for consumers to boycott eel at sushi restaurants.

The loss of eels motivated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, to consider new restrictions to protect the wriggling fish. The members of CITES, an international treaty, met in Uzbekistan this week to determine if the new rules on trade are needed. Member nations voted against the new protections on Thursday.

Conservation groups said the protections were long overdue, but not everyone was on board. Some fishing groups, seafood industry members and regulatory agencies in the U.S., China and Japan — all countries where eel is economically important — have spoken out against restricting the trade.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

MAINE: Japanese expertise considered key to building Maine’s farmed scallop industry

October 7, 2025 — Following on previous exchanges, a group of eight stakeholders in Maine’s farm-raised scallop industry are planning to visit similar interests in Japan.

“Technology transfer is one of the fastest ways to build, support and ramp up an industry,” said Hugh Cowperthwaite, senior program director of fisheries and aquaculture for Coastal Enterprises Inc. in Brunswick. “By spending time in Japan, our hope is to gain first-hand experience meeting growers, harvesters, processors, retailers, restaurateurs and scientists to learn how sea scallops are grown, harvested, processed, marketed and made into various products to continue our work in Maine diversifying Maine’s coastal economy.”

The group will visit the northern prefectures of Aomori and Hokkaido, both of which have a climate and seasonality like Maine and are rooted in natural resource-based economies.

The trip, made possible by a grant from the Builders Initiative to CEI, is scheduled for Oct. 13-17.

‘Promising results’

The trip was organized by Cowperthwaite; Keiichiro Hamano, CEO of Japan Fishing Machine LLC; and Yoshinobu Kosaka, an expert on the physiology, ecology and aquaculture of scallops who lives in Aomori Prefecture and works as an advisor for many companies. Hamano and Kosaka helped the group establish connections in Japan.

Dana Morse, senior extension program manager for Maine Sea Grant and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, provided additional support, drawing on his role in previous exchanges, which began with his 1999 visit to Aomori to study the scallop industry.

Read the full article at Mainebiz

Maine delegation to visit Japan to study farm-raised sea scallop industry

October 6, 2025 — A delegation of eight professionals from Maine will visit Aomori and Hokkaido, Japan to study the Japanese farm-raised sea scallop industry. From October 13 through 17, 2025 the group will visit the northern prefectures of Aomori and Hokkaido, both of which have a climate and seasonality like Maine and are rooted in natural resource-based economies.

The trip was co-organized by Hugh Cowperthwaite, senior program director of fisheries and aquaculture for Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI); Keiichiro Hamano, CEO of Japan Fishing Machine, LLC; and Dr. Yoshinobu Kosaka, an expert on the physiology, ecology, and aquaculture of scallops. Dana Morse, Senior Extension Program Manager for Maine Sea Grant and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, provided additional support, drawing on his instrumental role in previous exchanges, which began with his 1999 visit to Aomori to study the scallop industry. Cowperthwaite and Morse have been working on collaborative research and technology transfer initiatives together since 2002. Their work began initially with sea scallop spat collection, but their work has expanded to include farmed scallops, kelp and most recently, the two are collaborating on efforts to promote the growth of farmed green sea urchins in Maine.

“Technology transfer is one of the fastest ways to build, support and ramp up an industry,” said Cowperthwaite. “By spending time in Japan, our hope is to gain first-hand experience meeting growers, harvesters, processors, retailers, restaurateurs, and scientists to learn how sea scallops are grown, harvested, processed, marketed and made into various products to continue our work in Maine diversifying Maine’s coastal economy.”

“We have learned so much over the years about scallop farming from our Japanese colleagues, so much that we now have a farmed industry in Maine and are seeing very promising results,” said Morse.

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Pilot

Record Prices and Tariff Pressures Challenge the US Scallop Complex

September 22, 2025 — The scallop market in the US has faced continued challenges in 2025. Low domestic landings continue providing upward pricing pressure, while potentially constrained availability from Canada adds to tight North American supply. A similar scenario played out in 2024, when many market participants turned to Japanese product as a quality substitute for domestic shortfalls.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Interpol removes Sea Shephard’s Paul Watson from most wanted list

July 25, 2025 — International police organization Interpol has removed Sea Shepherd founder and anti-whaling activist Paul Watson from its “red notice” list, which signifies its highest priority targets for capture. 

“The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2012,” Watson said in a social media post. “It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources, but finally I am free.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump announces trade deal with Japan and Philippines, unveils formal deal with Indonesia

July 23, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump announced the country reached a trade deal with Japan on 22 July, granting the country a reprieve from the potential 25 percent tariffs he was threatening just weeks earlier.

Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social that Japan will now face a 15 percent “reciprocal” tariff in the U.S. and claimed Japan will invest USD 550 billion (EUR 469 billion) in the U.S., “which will receive 90 percent of the profits.” Trump later said that the country agreed to buy billions in military and other equipment.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ICCAT adopts swordfish management plan, but Japan and China block efforts to strengthen shark finning ban

November 19, 2024 — The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has adopted a management procedure for Atlantic swordfish, but another proposal to strengthen the commission’s ban on shark finning was derailed by Japan and China.

ICCAT held its annual meeting from 11 to 18 November and had already completed a management strategy evaluation for North Atlantic swordfish. NGOs like The Pew Charitable Trusts pushed for the ICCAT – a regional fishery management organization (RFMO) – to adopt the strategy to move away from annual quota negotiations toward an automated system that makes management decisions less political and more science-based.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Can Japan sustain the rebound of its ‘phantom fish’?

October 7, 2024 — Around the room are different pieces of equipment used in Yoichi over a century ago. Black and white photos of the fish meal fertilizer process line the walls. He points to a poster showing the herring catch in Hokkaido from 1870 to the 1950s.

“So in the high peak, there were close to 1 million tons of herring being caught, like 970,000 tons,” he says. “But you know, herring catch declined over the years and in the mid-1950s the herring fishery collapsed.”

In recent years, the fishermen have tried to manage the fishery themselves, to avoid another collapse in the future. Hatcheries aided in the recovery, but some co-ops and processors are taking the charge to conserve the herring population seriously, with strict fishing management. Ikuo Wada, who leads the Ishikari Fishing Co-Op in Hokkaido, says the shorter fishing period and wider nets made a big difference. And they’ve even secured a sustainability certification from the Japanese government.

But Kouta Fukuhara, a dried herring processor I spoke with in Yoichi, is skeptical.

“The current structure of Japanese fishing is not sustainable. Let me compare with Alaska. Alaska Department of Fish and Game regulates all kinds of commercial fishing — when it starts, how much fish to be caught… In Japan, we don’t have a such a legal structure,” Fukuhara says. “And the fishermen catch a lot of herring, bring it back and take the fish to the market. And the market is saturated with herring. Too much herring in the market, and the price goes down and they don’t make much money.”

Read the full article at KCAW

ALASKA: While local herring are more affordable and accessible in Japan, some still look to Alaska for eggs

October 3, 2024 — It’s another fiercely cold March morning, and a dozen or so local fish processors are pacing back and forth in an icy, cavernous warehouse in Otaru. It’s Saturday, usually a day off for the folks who work at the Otaru Fishing Co-Op, but since it’s herring season they’re hosting an auction this morning. Every minute counts with herring, so they have to move these fish quickly.

The buyers circle each pallet stacked high with styrofoam boxes. One man lingers over a fish box, a cigarette dangling between his lips, trying to discern the quality. When the buyers are done looking, they go to a heated room next door with sofas and vending machines and wait.

Read the full article at KCAW

Climate change heavily affecting fish stocks in Japan, resulting in historically low catch totals

September 18, 2024 — Japanese catch totals of important seafood species have fallen dramatically, and climate change is the suspected cause, according to new reports, with catches of Japanese flying squid and Pacific saury suffering in recent years compared to historical averages.

The Tokyo-based National Pacific Saury Stick Net Fishery Cooperative released countrywide catch data on saury through the end of 2023, showing a 36 percent increase from the record-low catch recorded in 2022. Nationwide landings went from 7,092 metric tons (MT) to 9,525 MT. However, this is still well behind the 350,000 MT landed in 2008 and the 225,000 MT caught in 2012.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource