This case study aims to clarify the problems of resource management without fishery rights with reference to short-necked clam management in Yokohama Seaside Park, Yokohama, Japan. The major change that this report addresses is land reclamation and construction of an artificial beach in the coastal area in Yokohama. Its social consequence was the renouncement of commercial fishing rights and subsequent increase in the numbers of people involved in shellfish gathering. The natural consequence was an increase in fishing pressure on the short-necked clam population. The governing problem is how to manage open-access recreational fishing in a large urban area.
The short-necked clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) is a marine bivalve belonging to the family Veneridae, which is widely distributed along coastal areas of Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan and the Philippines. It has been gathered and eaten in Japan for centuries, and huge shell mounds have been found in many areas. The short-necked clam fishery is also commercially important to many coastal communities in Japan.
Until the 1980s, the annual catch of short-necked clam was approximately 140,000 tons, but, because of activities such as coastal development and overfishing, annual catches have declined to approximately 30,000 tons in recent years. Therefore, the various prefectural fisheries research institutions in Japan have implemented conservation measures for short-necked clam populations in their respective areas. The methods usually involve periodic checks of clam resources, reducing fishing pressure and setting catch limits. However, when fishery rights are renounced, limiting catches as a conservation method is no longer applicable; therefore, in such cases, what conservation measures can be applied?
This report deals with this issue in the following steps. First, the fisheries resource management systems with historic fishery rights in Japan are described. Next, the problems of resource management without fishery rights are discussed with reference to the specific case of the Yokohama Seaside Park. Finally, the short-necked clam conservation system is presented with reference to Yokohama Seaside Park regulations, and its effects and problems are clarified.
Japan has a long history of marine tenure in small-scale, coastal fisheries dating back to the early 1700s. Fishing groups consisting of local fishermen, now called Fishery Cooperative Associations (FCAs), were formed to manage and protect coastal fisheries from outsiders (McIlwain 2013). The current system was officially recognized by the Fishery Law in 1949. Under this law, marine fisheries are classified into three categories: (1) fishery rights for coastal fisheries, (2) fishery licenses for offshore and distant water fisheries and (3) other fisheries (Makino 2011).
In this chapter, the focus is on coastal fishery rights, especially ‘common fishery’ rights. Common fishery rights grant the right to engage in a ‘common fishery,’ which means the common use of resources within specified coastal areas by specified local fishing people (Makino 2011). There are five types of ‘common fisheries’: (1) fisheries targeting seaweed, kelp, shellfish, or other sedentary species within the area; (2) fisheries using small-scale fixed nets such as set-nets or gillnets; (3) activities such as beach seine fishing and trawl fishing using non-powered vessels; (4) winter mullet fishing; and (5) fisheries in rivers and lakes, commonly called ‘inland water fishery rights’ (Makino 2011).
The basic concept of the ‘common fishery’ was set out in the Edo era as follows: “coastal fishing grounds in nearshore waters should be used only by the people from local fishing communities”.1 Therefore, common fishery rights are granted only to local FCAs, and the FCAs are mandated to establish their own autonomous regulations for sustainable use by their members (Makino 2011). Fishery rights are deemed to be a property, but not for the purpose of transfer or loan.2 This means that common fishery rights are completely tied to a specific coastal area.
To reduce catch pressure, fishing regulations and rules, such as type of gear, season and location, are set by the FCAs. For example, the Matsuo FCA in Kumamoto Prefecture is a small association with about 70 members, and they set and limit the fishing period, area, size and catch to conserve clam resources. Additionally, they monitor clam habitats and carry out sediment analysis yearly within Kumamoto city. Thus, they control the catches and landings of short-necked clams because they can use the fishery resources of the coastal area exclusively on the grounds of common fishery rights (Fisheries Agency 2008).
How can a fishery resource be managed without fishery rights? The case of Yokohama Seaside Park in Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, is presented as an example in which fishery rights were renounced during the period of rapid economic growth in Japan.
Yokohama is located in Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kanto¯ region of the main island of Honshu (Figure 10.1), and Yokohama Seaside Park is located to the south of Yokohama (Figure 10.2). Yokohama Seaside Park has a 1-km coastline and covers a surface area of 470,000 m2. It has a multipurpose playing field where people can enjoy soccer, rugby, football and other sports, as well as a barbeque area. On the beach, people gather shellfish in early summer and enjoy swimming and board sailing in summer. The park attracts around 30,000 visitors annually.
In the coastal area in Yokohama, fishing has been carried out for centuries. During the period of rapid economic growth, successive port improvement and reclamation projects were implemented in many coastal areas of Japan. In Yokohama, land was reclaimed on the northern part of the coastal area to form a coastal industrial zone. When the reclamation plan for Kanazawa-ku, in the southern part of Yokohama, was formally announced, fishermen from the Shiba branch of the Yokohama FCA started seaweed farming, using the coastal area as a laver culture site. The Shiba branch, along with the Tomioka and Kanazawa branches of the FCA, launched a campaign against the reclamation project. According to the Act on the Reclamation of Publicly Owned Water Surfaces, reclamation projects without the agreement and consensus of the fishermen are not permitted. Negotiations between Yokohama city authorities and the fishermen started in 1969 and, after the intervention of the mayor of Yokohama, a settlement involving compensation and tax incentives was reached in 1970, and the fishermen renounced their fishery rights.
However, local communities continued to actively campaign against the project, fearing pollution from the industrial zone and increasing concern about the environment. Finally, Yokohama city authorities reduced the reclamation area and implemented environmental monitoring and pollution control measures. As part of the project, an artificial beach was constructed in the area where people can enjoy swimming and shellfish gathering. Yokohama city officers, non-profit organizations, fishermen and the local community tried to reclaim a seaweed bed in this area.
This coastal area is close to Tokyo, and the short-necked clam spreads naturally here. Therefore, people can gather shellfish for free because all common fishery rights have been renounced, and as a consequence, many people visit Yokohama Seaside Park in early summer to gather shellfish (Figure 10.3). The increasing numbers involved in shellfish gathering is putting pressure on the short-necked clam population, with the indiscriminate gathering of juvenile clams and the harvesting of clams in large quantities using equipment reserved for fishermen only.
As mentioned, fishery resources in coastal areas are mainly controlled by FCAs on the basis of common fishery rights. The FCAs and fishermen in Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, understand the importance of resource management but have no power to control or manage the short-necked clam resource without a common fishery right. A fisherman from the Shiba branch said,
“… although there are informal rules among the fishermen in Tokyo Bay, fishermen belonging to another FCA don’t come into the coastal area of Yokohama for fishing. But without fishery rights, fishermen can’t crack down on illegal fishing such as shellfish gathering with illegal equipment.”
Thus, the absence of prefectural fishery rules and regulations means that clam conservation measures have to be implemented beyond the institutional framework of fishery governance.
To control gathering and to manage the clam population, Yokohama City authorities proposed a number of regulations. On March 1, 2005, they extended the park area to 350 m offshore and implemented the following regulations regarding shellfish harvesting:
The purpose of these regulations was to conserve the short-necked clam resource and to ensure its fair distribution among all the gatherers. Regulations 1 and 2 are already established in articles 45 and 37, respectively, of the fishery adjustment rules of Kanagawa Prefecture. Under the new regulation, the park is patrolled and penalties are applied for breach of the rules. The regulations were announced via public relations magazines and the Yokohama Prefecture home page, and information distributed via various media, including the news, signs and leaflets. Between 2005 and 2007, an active campaign highlighting the overfishing of short-necked clams was carried out by a liaison committee via the delivery of leaflets, the examination of nets and the manning of a calibration center.
The conservation program is currently progressing satisfactorily, although a monitoring and control system is required. The Yokohama Greenery Foundation, which is the designated manager of Yokohama Seaside Park, patrols the coastal zone four times daily and surveys the clam population at 20 sampling sites once a month. Administration costs of the ‘beach’ in Yokohama Seaside Park is approximately 25 million yen per year (average value for 2011/2012), which includes the cost of setting and removing buoys and temporary restrooms for the summer season. Patrolling, monitoring and implementing the clam-harvesting rules costs about 1.2 million yen per year (average value for 2011/2012).
Table 10.1 compares the changes in the conservation method of short-necked clams in Yokohama Seaside Park. When fishery rights are renounced, people are free to gather shellfish. In the case of Yokohama Seaside Park, this meant that the short-necked clam resource changed from a fishery resource to a recreational one. The resulting user diversification also meant that the resource conservation system changed from a self-management system to a system of external supervision. Thus, this involved a monitoring/patrol system and increased running costs.
| Basis | Fishery Right | Park Regulation |
|---|---|---|
Resource |
Fishery resource |
Recreational resource |
Purpose |
Conservation of shortnecked clam |
Conservation of short-necked clam |
Incentives to follow the rules |
Increased clam landings |
Sustainable use |
Penalty |
||
Beneficiary |
Fishermen |
People who enjoy shellfish gathering |
People targeted by regulations |
Fishermen |
People who enjoy shellfish gathering; people who catch clams with illegal equipment |
Regulation supervisor |
Fishermen (self-imposed regulation) |
Yokohama (external regulation) |
Source: author’s own elaboration
At present, clam resources are abundant in Yokohama Seaside Park, but are dependent on the water quality and environmental conditions within Tokyo Bay. In fact, the conservation regulations should be stricter and more rigorously enforced, but this will require increased costs. Another problem is the absence of clam conservation measures outside the park area, and the farther the park area is extended, the greater the administrative costs involved. A comprehensive research and monitoring program of Tokyo Bay is required to address these issues. The implementation of an inclusive plan, involving research institutions, such as the Prefectural Fisheries Research Institution and Tokyo Bay Environmental Information Center, in cooperation with clam fishermen who can monitor the fishing area daily, is a prerequisite for conservation of the short-necked clam in this area. The aforementioned fisherman also said, “[F]ishermen know and are familiar with their fishing grounds; therefore, they should be guardians of coastal areas.” Fishermen will be expected to play their part in clam conservation, but how this will be achieved without common fishery rights is a major challenge for the fishermen themselves.
McIlwain, K. (2013). Catch shares in action: Japanese common fishing rights system. Environmental Defense Fund, Japan.
Makino, M. (2011). Fisheries management in Japan. Springer, New York.
Fisheries Agency. (2008). Guidelines for tidal flats productivity improvement. Fisheries Agency, Japan.
