TOKYO - Japan, China and the seven other members of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission agreed Friday to cut their combined saury catch quota by 5 percent from the current 202,500 tons in 2026, the Japanese Fisheries Agency said.
The agreement by the nine members, also including Taiwan, South Korea and Russia, at the conference that began Tuesday in Osaka, fell short of Japan's proposal for a 10 percent reduction to help restore depleted saury stocks. The total allowable catch spans areas including international waters, as well as the exclusive economic zones of Japan and Russia.
The Japanese government has urged a strict quota in international waters on the back of the high fishing yields of China and Taiwan. The commission agreed to slash the quota by 10 percent in 2027, according to the agency.
Japan's quota in 2025 stood at around 16,000 tons in international waters, while a total of 81,000 tons was allocated for Japan and Russia in their EEZs.
Japan caught around 64,800 tons of the fish in 2025, below its quota but up 1.7-fold from the previous year as the nutrient-rich Oyashio Current neared Japan, the ministry said.
But the overall haul has fallen by around 80 percent compared with the recent peak in 2008.
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