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The story
Octopus are disappearing from the Seto Inland Sea. According to an article from Shueisha Online, catches in Akashi and surrounding areas have plummeted 90% over the past decade, a decline that’s even driving up prices at takoyaki shops. The article also points to young people suspected of poaching, drawn by the idea that “a luxury ingredient like octopus is there for free.” On 5ch’s News Speed+ board, the thread split between those blaming overfishing and those pointing to environmental shifts like rising sea temperatures and cleaner wastewater, with the discussion spiraling into debates over fisheries resource management and catch-quota policy.
“We can’t catch octopus!” Catches down 90% in 10 years, takoyaki prices rising too… “Don’t you dare take over this job!” — the anguished cry of Seto Inland Sea fishermen, while some young people chase octopus amid “poaching suspicions” over a “free luxury ingredient”
Published 11/10 (Tue) 17:12
Shueisha Online
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
It's because taxes are too high.
It's the civil servants' fault.
I'd rather my taxes went to stuff like this than civil servants' salaries.
That's already possible.
They just end up cannibalizing each other.
Exactly. I think so too.
When there's a catch to be had, Japanese fishermen will fish it to extinction.
No matter how many times they repeat the same mistake, they never learn.
It's global warming.
Even farmed ones can't survive, it's too hot.
Re: #21
Octopus spawn and grow within a single year.
Happy ending.
For labor shortages, just lay off some civil servants.
Mauritania (a major octopus source Japan imports from)
But doesn't anyone reflect on this scorched-earth style of fishing?
Like icefish (ikanago) in the Kansai region —
Isn't overfishing the small fish that support the whole ecosystem the real culprit?
Ikanago (icefish)
If you go and hunt down
juvenile wrasse too
well, that's extinction for you.
They ate through the resource ahead of time and strangled themselves.
In the Seto Inland Sea, you can't even blame China or Korea for this one.
People have less cash on hand because of taxes,
so businesses struggle and go under.
The only ones taking in more from taxes than they pay are civil servants.
Makes no sense.
We're talking about octopus here.
If you earn under 6 million yen a year, the benefits you get from taxes outweigh what you pay in.
Shirasu —
baby fish (fry) of Japanese sardine, anchovy, round herring, and similar species.
The catch-quota system just doesn't really function in Japan.
That said, if you lean too hard into quotas,
you end up with big capital monopolizing things like in Iceland,
so finding the right balance is tough.
I think the main reason is the sea got too clean, so there's no food left for them.
Is that still happening?
Or are they even getting poached now too?
I hear that theory a lot, but I don't think it's right.
The cause isn't the sewers —
it's herbicides from rice paddies and farm fields.
Those run off into the sea and damage the ecosystem.
When the mountain environment changes, the rivers change too,
and in the end it affects the sea as well.
Japan's pesticide usage is seriously one of the highest in the world~
https://tk.ismcdn.jp/mwimgs/e/0/500m/img_e0337453cdb4cf21b822fdaf905df04a220112.jpg
Japan is the only country in the world where catch volumes are declining.
It's not "China's fault" or whatever — it's just a lack of resource management.
No wonder nobody trusts Japan, what with the dolphin and whale hunting too.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Octopus fishing in the Seto Inland Sea is known for traditional methods like Akashi’s “octopus-pot fishing,” closely tied to the local takoyaki culture. The reported figure of a “90% decline over 10 years” is said to stem from a tangle of factors — overfishing, rising sea temperatures, food shortages caused by cleaner wastewater, and herbicide runoff — making it premature to pin the blame on any single cause. The thread itself split between an “overfishing” camp and an “environmental change” camp, with theories ranging from improved sewage treatment making the water too clean (reducing the plankton octopus feed on) to herbicide runoff from farmland, without ever settling on one answer. Some pointed out that Japan’s catch-quota system isn’t functioning properly, while others worried that tightening quotas too much could let big capital monopolize the fishery instead — a structural dilemma that simple regulation won’t easily fix. A few posts also veered off-topic into criticism of civil servants.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[It’s Over for Akashi’s Octopus] We Can’t Catch Octopus! Catches Down 90% in 10 Years — Seto Inland Sea Fisherman: “Don’t You Dare Take Over This Job!” — Some Young People Chase Octopus Too.”
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