Current Situation and Future Perspectives on the Fisheries in Japan: Toward the Global Sustainable Fisheries Management Based on the Ocean Ecosystem Approach

Ocean ecosystems are extremely complex environments, and are influenced by natural forces (e.g., earthquake, tsunami, and climate) and human impacts (e.g., global warming, overfishing). Risk management based on adaptive management and precautionary principles, is one way to prioritize, identify, and potentially mitigate impacts resulting from diverse human activities in oceans. This presentation will focus on the following issues for establishing the sustainable adaptive management of Pacific salmon: 1) How can we use salmons as seafood in the future? – We should know that ocean carrying capacity are limited and fluctuated in the ocean ecosystems. 2) What do we need for sustainability of salmons and ocean ecosystem in present and future? – We need paradigm shift from the traditional fisheries sciences to the ecological fisheries science. 3) How do we establish the sustainable adaptive management of salmons based on the ecosystem approach? – The education is most important issues for future generation.