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An Overview of the Japanese Pollock Fishery & Market

This article is from the Hokkai Keizai Shinbun and was published in the August 24, 2005 issue of Bill Atkinson’s News Report.
  The Japanese fishery for pollock started late in the Meiji area, more than 100 years ago. The fishery started with longline operations off the coast, and gradually expanded to operations by the gill-net and trawl fleets. By 1954, landings exceeded 200,000 tons, with the supply continuing to increase as fishing vessel technology increased.

The Japanese pollock fleet went from coastal operations, to off-shore fisheries and finally to high-seas fisheries. By 1972, the Japanese fleet was harvesting more than 3 million tons a year. The scale of the Japanese pollock fishery was cut back severely, however, with the implementation of 200-mile economic zones around the world. They were gradually phased-out of the very productive fishing grounds in Russia and the United States, and the scale of the Japanese pollock fishery was reversed.

The Japanese operations went from high-seas fisheries, to off-shore operations and eventually back to the coastal operations started many years ago. Not only did this affect the size of the fleet, but also the overall Japanese catch. Catches dropped below one million tons in 1990, and have since declined to the current level of 200,000 to 300,000 tons.

The Japanese fleet wasn't the only loser in the implementation of 200-mile fishing zones. Fleets from South Korea, China and Poland, all of which once fished for pollock in the Okhotsk and Bering Seas, were also phased out of these productive fishing grounds. From an expansive list of pollock producing nations, only Russia, the United States and Japan remain as producing nations at this time.

While the fisheries continue in these three nations, the overall catches have declined dramatically. From the peak harvest levels of 6 million tons seen 20 years ago, the current combined production is only about half of that volume. While the fishery in the United States is well managed, the resource in the Okhotsk Sea has been hard hit by relatively unrestricted fishing in the past. 



In Japan, utilization of the pollock was relatively simple in the beginning. The roe was used for the production of salted pollock roe, and the fish were processed into various dried fish products. Surimi was added to the product styles in 1935, when technology for the use of pollock in the production of surimi was developed in 1935. These products still dominate the utilization of pollock landed in coastal fishing operations.

The overall supply of pollock on the Japanese market has continued to decline over the past several years, however. In addition to decreased landings in the coastal fishery, imports from Russian operations have also declined. The majority of the pollock harvested by the Russian fleet is shipped to China for processing, rather than to Japan. The roe is mainly processed into mentai (spicy Korean-style) pollock roe, and exported to Japan. The pollock itself is filleted and exported to the European market.

This trend is not limited to Russian production. Much of the US harvest is filleted and exported to Germany and other users in the EU. And while Japan remains the lead market for surimi produced in the US fishery, there has been a marked demand for surimi in Lithuania and Estonia.

Foreign nations aren't the only groups affecting the Japanese pollock fishery. Like their counterparts overseas, the Japanese producers are starting to look to overseas markets for their pollock. Japanese exports of fresh pollock to Korea and frozen pollock to China have increased over the past several years, and the trend isn't expected to end soon. While this is good for some sectors of the industry, a red flag has gone up for the users of pollock in Hokkaido. In addition to the need to compete with buyers around the world, the Japanese processors have to worry about obtaining enough product to meet their processing needs.