Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
The population of Japanese sardines is decreasing rapidly in the Pacific Ocean, according to a study conducted by the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency $(FRA)$.
Food shortages are one cause of the decline, the agency said. The FRA also pointed out that Japanese sardines are currently being overfished and called for "effective resource management, together with foreign countries."
The FRA revealed the results of its research, which focused on the Pacific stock of the fish, on Sept. 2. These fish spawn off the coast of the Shikoku region, in Japan's southwest, and in waters near the eastern Kanto region. They migrate northward to grow in the northwestern Pacific, and then go south again during autumn and winter.
According to the FRA, the combined catch of these fish by Japan, Russia, and China totaled 1.38 million metric tons in 2024, but the figure dropped to 910,000 metric tons in 2025. Most notably, Russia's catch plummeted to one-tenth of the previous year -- a development believed to be linked to the shrinking of the sardines' distribution range due to the decline in resources.
Furthermore, the FRA was able to collect only 1,564 Japanese sardines in the northwestern Pacific during a study conducted from May to July this year, a drop of 96.8% from the same period the previous year. The spawning volumes also plummeted, and the agency estimated that for stocks to be sustained, the allowable catch amount for 2027 would have to be just 162,000 metric tons, well below past assessments.
Japanese sardines are known to alternate between periods of growth and decline in cycles spanning several decades. Experts have pointed to a drop in the spawning capacity of adult sardines as a possible cause for the latest population drop, as the fish are believed to have become smaller due to a decrease in plankton -- their primary food source -- stemming from rising sea temperatures.
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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.
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