Recent “Sea Without Fish” symposium

Based on an original article by Yoshinori Ishii

Marine Day on 19 July was celebrated in many colorful ways across Japan. Exhibitions and charity concerts were part of the festivities. But, serious reflections about marine resources, the maritime environment, and ecological concerns are also part of the thinking that led up to this day.

The third Monday of July was selected in 1996 as a national holiday in order to express appreciation for the bounty of the sea and the prosperity it has brought to Japan. The Nippon Foundation was one of the groups that supported making “Marine Day” a national holiday The Nippon Foundation has raised awareness about the issues of ocean and maritime resources during the past year by sponsoring several urgent international symposiums to look at the impact of overfishing and whether the next generation will actually have any marine resources left.

This subject has been highlighted by recent debates at international meetings in Monaco and Qatar about whether or not to put a ban on fishing blue fin tuna. The debates are based on the rapidly decreasing stocks of this popular food item, and the major impact a ban would have on Japanese dinner tables if the ban is eventually approved.

The sea and boats exhibition (2009)

The urgency of these marine resources symposiums, held in collaboration with Tokyo University’s Ocean Alliance has underscored the critical need of the fisheries debate with such titles as “Sea Without Fish.” These events and the comments by many experienced marine resources experts have been covered extensively on this site this year.

It was unanimously agreed at the symposia that marine resource management must be implemented throughout the world in order to avert a crisis in the depletion of fish stocks, and more attention must be given to the harmonious environmental protection of the seas.

On a lighter note, The Nippon Foundation is supporting a number of local maritime exhibitions throughout the country this summer on the theme of “Ships and the Sea.” It is expected that the exhibitions will be bustling with children all summer.

Marine Day Charity Concerts held all over Japan

One of these regional exhibits “Fishing Boats – Past and Present” will be held at the Michinoku Northern Fishing Boats Museum in Aomori Prefecture. Another exhibit will be “Crossing the Channel Between Niigata and Sado Island” at the Niigata City Arts and Culture Museum. The Mie Prefecture Tokai Fisheries Research Museum will feature the exhibit “Ise Bay’s Abundant Sea,” and in Iwanai, Hokkaido, the local exhibit is “The Blessings of A Hundred Years -- Iwanai Bay and the Sea.”

To top off the extended celebrations of Marine Day, four major concerts supported by The Nippon Foundation will be held in Tokyo and three regional venues – Sapporo, Yamagata, and Fukuoka.

In Tokyo a charity concert by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Dan Ettinger will be held on 20 August. This concert is meant to raise donations for the Cancer Education Fund.