It is impossible to imagine Japan without sushi or a dinner table without several types of seafood on it. But, some fears are being raised that this scenario may actually be on the horizon because of the worldwide decrease in fish stocks, quota fishing, and even -- unspeakably to the Japanese – a possible ban on blue fin tuna fishing.

The Tokyo University Ocean Alliance will hold its 3rd joint symposium with The Nippon Foundation on 12 March entitled “The looming crisis at the dinner table – how the next generation will inherit the sea.”

Where will all the fish stocks go?
– The Rising Dinner Table Crisis poster

Japan, of course, is surrounded on all sides by water. The country as a whole believes it receives the gift of life from the sea.

Every supermarket or independent little fish shop is stocked with fresh sea and river fish, not to mention all the shell fish and seaweed that is an integral part of practically every Japanese person’s morning miso soup. One can hardly take a step in any shopping district without encountering sushi shops on every corner.

The Japanese love fish and has the highest per capita consumption of it in the world. But, will this take it for granted attitude about fish continue in the future?

Last year, there were two joint symposiums held by Tokyo University and The Nippon Foundation on this subject, and it was felt necessary to convene a third one early this year too.

One topic that will certainly be taken up is the question about what must be done to ensure that the Japanese national palate is not denied the easy access to a steady supply of fish products to which it has become accustomed.

Participants at one of last year’s Tokyo University
–The Nippon Foundation symposiums.

However, the coming symposium will take up the subject of what is necessary and must be done for the next generation to be able to inherit a clean ocean and abundant marine life. Will there be delicious fish to eat in future?

Among topics that ocean experts will discuss are -- what new initiatives in seafood retail sales must be planned for the future, a balanced seafood market approach that connects seafood products to consumers, eco-labels that need to be applied to some sea stocks such as sea turtles, and the need to better control biodiversity in ocean ecosystems for the future.

A central shock to this fish eating nation came as the European Union debates whether to completely ban the fishing of blue fin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean because of fears that the species will become extinct.

This debate has been fueled in part by the ever rising price of blue fin tuna as a symbol of the coming crisis in marine resource management. More regulation of fishing is seen as inevitable not only in regard to tuna, but other fish species. Eels too, another favorite dish at the Japanese dinner table, is facing the experts’ enquiries.

The whole issue of fishery management, consumption, and technological advances that sweep the ocean clean of many species will also be on the symposium agenda. Many points that have been unspoken in the past will be on the table for discussion.

Issues will go beyond conservation to the consideration of national polices and politics around fishing. There is also an idea being raised to support a call not to eat fish for one month – but would the public respond to that?

The alternative to not taking various actions now, would eventually lead to oceans without fish in the future, say experts. "A few more years later, and fish will disappear !" said one participant at last year’s symposium. Is that an extreme comment or a realistic picture of the future?