Cultured Marine Forest as a Key Concept for Responsible Fisheries

Research PaperHuman beings are now recognizing that fish are no longer free gifts from the nature and we have to manage it wisely. The current management schemes are more or less based on the allocation of fish by individuals or communities through rules and regulations, resulting in illegal fishing, high MCS (Monitoring, Control and Surveillance) cost, high wastes including discards and mortalities other than landings, depletion of resources, environmental degradation and corruption of rural communities. To take advantage of natural resources of vast seas, new responsible fisheries management schemes must be based on fare cost and benefits sharing by fishermen, resulting in prosperities of rural communities and a large contribution to the society. Cultured marine forest has resulted in a huge increase of fish production in China. In Japan, similar attempts have been made recently, learning from the past resource enhancement experiences in both China and Japan. This paper reviews the current attempts in Japan and discuss the future of such activities