Japanese Ying Squid Japan

Japanese ying squid Todarodes pacicus Japan: North and Northwest Pacic Jig, Unassociated purse seine, Bottom trawls, Trap net Fisheries Standard Version F2 December 5, 2016 Ernest Chen, Consulting Researcher Disclaimer Seafood Watch® strives to have all Seafood Reports reviewed for accuracy and completeness by external scientists with expertise in ecology, sheries science and aquaculture. Scientic review, however, does not constitute an endorsement of the Seafood Watch® program or its recommendations on the part of the reviewing scientists. Seafood Watch® is solely responsible for the conclusions reached in this report. 1 Table of Contents About. .Seafood . Watch. 3. Guiding. .Principles . 4. Summary. 5. Final. Seafood. .Recommendations . 6. Introduction. 8. Assessment. 11. Criterion. .1: . .Impacts . on. the. species. under. assessment. .11 . .............. Criterion. .2: . .Impacts . on. other. species. .16 . .............. Criterion. .3: . .Management . .Effectiveness . .20 . .............. Criterion. .4: . .Impacts . on. the. habitat. .and . .ecosystem . .27 . .............. Acknowledgements. 31. References. 32. Appendix. A:. Extra. .By . Catch. .Species . 36. 2 About Seafood Watch Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch® program evaluates the ecological sustainability of wild-caught and farmed seafood commonly found in the United States marketplace. Seafood Watch® denes sustainable seafood as originating from sources, whether wild-caught or farmed, which can maintain or increase production in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or function of aected ecosystems. Seafood Watch® makes its science-based recommendations available to the public in the form of regional pocket guides that can be downloaded from www.seafoodwatch.org. The program’s goals are to raise awareness of important ocean conservation issues and empower seafood consumers and businesses to make choices for healthy oceans. Each sustainability recommendation on the regional pocket guides is supported by a Seafood Report. Each report synthesizes and analyzes the most current ecological, sheries and ecosystem science on a species, then evaluates this information against the program’s conservation ethic to arrive at a recommendation of “Best Choices,” “Good Alternatives” or “Avoid.” The detailed evaluation methodology is available upon request. In producing the Seafood Reports, Seafood Watch® seeks out research published in academic, peer-reviewed journals whenever possible. Other sources of information include government technical publications, shery management plans and supporting documents, and other scientic reviews of ecological sustainability. Seafood Watch® Research Analysts also communicate regularly with ecologists, sheries and aquaculture scientists, and members of industry and conservation organizations when evaluating sheries and aquaculture practices. Capture sheries and aquaculture practices are highly dynamic; as the scientic information on each species changes, Seafood Watch®’s sustainability recommendations and the underlying Seafood Reports will be updated to reect these changes. Parties interested in capture sheries, aquaculture practices and the sustainability of ocean ecosystems are welcome to use Seafood Reports in any way they nd useful. For more information about Seafood Watch® and Seafood Reports, please contact the Seafood Watch® program at Monterey Bay Aquarium by calling 1-877-229-9990. 3 Guiding Principles Seafood Watch denes sustainable seafood as originating from sources, whether shed1 or farmed, that can maintain or increase production in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or function of aected ecosystems. Based on this principle, Seafood Watch had developed four sustainability criteria for evaluating wildcatch sheries for consumers and businesses. These criteria are: How does shing aect the species under assessment? How does the shing aect other, target and non-target species? How eective is the shery’s management? How does the shing aect habitats and the stability of the ecosystem? Each criterion includes: Factors to evaluate and score Guidelines for integrating these factors to produce a numerical score and rating Once a rating has been assigned to each criterion, we develop an overall recommendation. Criteria ratings and the overall recommendation are color-coded to correspond to the categories on the Seafood Watch pocket guide and online guide: Best Choice/Green: Are well managed and caught in ways that cause little harm to habitats or other wildlife. Good Alternative/Yellow: Buy, but be aware there are concerns with how they’re caught. Avoid/Red Take a pass on these for now. These items are overshed or caught in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. 1 “Fish” is used throughout this document to refer to nsh, shellsh and other invertebrates 4 Summary This report focuses on Japanese ying squid (Todarodes pacicus) captured in Japan by jiggers in the Sea of Japan; by jiggers, bottom trawlers, purse seiners, and trap (set) nets in the North Pacic; and by jiggers and trap nets in the Sea of Okhotsk. Japanese ying squid comprises three or four cohorts based on spawning season, and is managed by the Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries as two stocks: the autumn-spawning cohort and the winter- spawning cohort. Stock assessments are performed annually by the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA) for both cohorts. The FRA utilizes scientic surveys and shery-dependent data to calculate annual allowable biological catches and biomass estimates. Based on these assessments, both cohort populations appear to be healthy, with probable increases in future individuals. Overshing is also not likely occurring, because the sheries' take has remained below the management threshold limits for nearly the entire past decade. Because of the nature of the shery and appropriate techniques, jigging results in little bycatch. Purse seiners, which operate near the surface at night with overhead lights, also produce little incidental take. But bottom trawling and trap nets are of a very high concern due to a lack of mitigation techniques and the probable incidental take of vulnerable species. Furthermore, bycatch data are not collected, and management has not made any known eorts to reduce incidental take associated with these sheries. The lack of data and probability of signicant incidental take without proper management are of a critical concern for the bottom trawl shery. Jigs and purse seines do not contact the ocean oor, so these gear types likely do not damage benthic habitats. On the other hand, trap nets rest on the substrate and could have a signicant impact on kelp forests. Although bottom trawling is prohibited in coastal waters where kelp forests are found, it could still leave lasting impacts on muddy and sandy substrates. Because there are no known signicant deepwater corals in these specic shing areas, the impacts of trap nets and bottom trawls on the ocean substrate are of a moderate concern. All jig and purse seine sheries are rated as a "Best Choice" or "Green" due to healthy squid populations, with eective management and little impact on other species and the ocean substrate. All trap net and bottom trawl sheries are rated as "Avoid" or "Red" due to impact concerns on benthic habitats and ineective bycatch management that likely results in the capture of vulnerable species. 5 Final Seafood Recommendations CRITERION 2: CRITERION 1: IMPACTS ON CRITERION 3: CRITERION 4: IMPACTS ON OTHER MANAGEMENT HABITAT AND OVERALL SPECIES/FISHERY THE SPECIES SPECIES EFFECTIVENESS ECOSYSTEM RECOMMENDATION Japanese ying Green (5.000) Green (5.000) Green (5.000) Green (3.873) Best Choice (4.690) squid:Winter cohort Japan North Pacic, Unassociated purse seine Japanese ying Green (5.000) Red (1.414) Critical (0.000) Yellow (2.449) Avoid (0.000) squid:Winter cohort Japan North Pacic, Bottom trawls (nei) Japanese ying Green (5.000) Yellow (2.573) Yellow (3.162) Yellow (2.449) Good Alternative squid:Winter (3.159) cohort Japan North Pacic, Trap nets Japanese ying Green (5.000) Green (5.000) Green (5.000) Green (3.873) Best Choice (4.690) squid:Winter cohort Japan North Pacic, Jig Japanese ying Green (5.000) Green (5.000) Green (5.000) Green (3.873) Best Choice (4.690) squid:Autumn cohort Japan North Pacic, Jig Summary This report covers Japanese ying squid (Todarodes pacicus) captured in Japan, which is the most commonly caught and consumed cephalopod in Japan. The Best Choice rank for all Japanese ying squid jig and purse seine sheries is driven by a combination of a relatively low conservation concern for the stock status, eective management, and minimal bycatch and ecosystem impacts. The Avoid rank for all Japanese ying squid trap net and bottom trawl sheries is driven by a combination of high concerns for incidental take, lack of bycatch management, and potential ecosystem impacts on the ocean substrate. 6 Eco-Certication Information None of the sheries assessed are certied or being assessed by the Marine Stewardship Council, nor are any in a Fishery Improvement Project. Scoring Guide Scores range from zero to ve where zero indicates very poor performance and ve indicates the shing operations have no signicant impact. Final Score = geometric mean of the four Scores (Criterion 1, Criterion 2, Criterion 3, Criterion 4). Best Choice/Green = Final Score >3.2, and no Red Criteria, and no Critical scores Good Alternative/Yellow = Final score >2.2-3.2, and neither Harvest Strategy (Factor

Load more