© APSouth Korean military vessels patrol the waters for illegal Chinese fishing activity around Ganghwa Island, in the country's northwest, on June 10.
Asia's seafood addiction is depleting the oceans and stirring diplomatic tensions. The region consumes 70% of the world's fish, a share poised to rise as the middle class expands. Fishing operators are searching for bigger hauls, while governments are increasingly protective of marine resources. The seas are churning with competition and disputes.At 3 a.m. one October night, in a dark and smelly Nagasaki port in western Japan, a 300-ton steel fishing boat from the East China Sea was unloading its catch. Not a man among the tired crew was smiling. One fisherman sighed. "The haul is so tiny," he lamented. The boat contained eight massive tanks but six were empty. And most of the fish in the hold were not mackerel, the hoped-for prize. Instead, the fishermen were unloading smaller and less-pricey fish to market.
Nagasaki, long a base for profitable deep-sea fishing. His father established a fishing company in 1961 and enjoyed a plentiful business from the East China Sea throughout his lifetime. Nomura took over in 2005. In less than a decade, he shut down his operations. "There was no hope for the future," Nomura said.
© Kentaro IwamotoA Japanese fisherman takes a cigarette break after returning to Nagasaki with a dismal catch.
Diminishing catches and increasing equipment costs battered his ambition, but Nomura said it was the unstoppable wave of Chinese boats that made him call it quits in 2014. "We have been interrupted by Chinese boats a lot." Nomura said it was not unusual to see a fleet of 200 to 300 boats roll into his traditional fishing waters. It was so dense that his own boats could barely sail through.
The Chinese operate legally, he admits, and they work in a zone where both countries have fishing rights. Still, Nomura said, the Chinese surge drowns prospects for traditional or smaller companies. "If we leave the East China Sea as it is, all the fish in the area will be China's."
The East China Sea -- bounded by Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan -- used to be a trove for Japanese fishermen, but the situation has dramatically changed in the last decade. The life of Toshiro Nomura, 67, tells the story.
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