Recreational clam digging in Japan could be poaching: coast guard - The Mainichi - The Mainichi
MITO -- The Kashima-nada sea shore in east Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture is famed for its hamaguri clam digging, but recently the area has been plagued by issues from clam poachers and even rule-breaking by ordinary clam diggers. To find out about the situation, the Mainichi Shimbun accompanied Ibaraki Coast Guard Office members on a patrol of the area.
As it turns out, general clam diggers could be subject to the same penalties as commercial poachers if they break the rules. It's also possible people are unknowingly eating poacher-caught clams that are traded online.
"Aren't they hamaguri clams you've caught?" an Ibaraki Coast Guard Office employee asked a middle-aged man in a wetsuit at Oarai Sun Beach in the town of Oarai on the early afternoon of May 3. At his feet was a net stuffed with what looked like 20 to 30 kilograms of clams.
During the patrol, coast guard members had spotted a car leaving an area where clam digging is prohibited. Their suspicions aroused, they searched the area to find a buoy with a net attached under the sea surface. It was then they questioned the man nearby.
Even in areas where clam digging is allowed, the local fisheries cooperative association's rules limit catches to a maximum of 1 kilogram per person per day. Fishery operators with permissions are excluded from the rules.
Though the coast guard officers questioned the man, they only returned the clams into the sea after he told them, "I've come here just to take the net as asked by an acquaintance." A coast guard office executive said, "It was a lot. Commercial poaching is suspected in many cases with these amounts."
During the spring and early summer high season, many visit the Kashima-nada sea to dig for wild hamaguri clams. But with falling young shell numbers, clam catch amounts have plummeted.
According to the Ibaraki Prefectural Government, catch amounts have decreased from 1,751 metric tons in 1993 -- the largest in the Heisei era (1989-2019) -- to 228 tons in 2018. The prefectural government has restrictions in place regarding factors including types of fishing equipment and what sizes of clam can be caught. Since 2018, three local fisheries cooperative associations have limited permitted clam digging to four locations including the north area of Oarai Sun Beach and Oritsu Beach in the neighboring city of Kashima.
Rule-breakers can be charged for violating laws including the Fisheries Act. The prefectural government's fisheries policy division reported it had detected 163 clam-digging violations in the five years until 2020. Many violations related to the use of banned equipment with long handles and claws that make it easier to dig clams from sand; at least one person was reportedly fined 100,000 yen (about $910).
In April, the Ibaraki Coast Guard Office searched the homes of two men in the prefectural city of Hitachinaka and other locations. They were suspected of violating the Fisheries Act, specifically fisheries operation without permission, for allegedly poaching about 1 ton of hamaguri clams from Oarai Sun Beach and selling them on online auctions. The two men had been auctioning clams with taglines like "fresh hamaguri clams caught in Oarai," and possibly earned some 1.2 million yen (about $10,900) over a period of less than a year beginning May 2020.
According to the Fisheries Agency, suspected poaching cases across Japan increased from 212 in 1998 to 1,185 in 2018. Though some beach visitors come for the bathing or to barbeque and end up catching shellfish while unaware of the regulations, authorities have confirmed cases where organized crime groups or other criminals were involved in poaching valuable abalones and sea cucumbers. An agency official said, "In addition to direct sales online, poached seafood is apparently distributed by traders and others."
Revisions to the Fisheries Act came into effect in December 2020; they designate abalones, sea cucumbers and glass eels as specified marine animals and plants, and stricter penalties have been introduced for poaching cases. Breaking the law can now lead to imprisonment of up to three years or a fine up to 30 million yen (about $270,000). The maximum fine for hamaguri clam poaching was also raised from 2 million yen (about $18,000) to 3 million yen.
Akinobu Usuniwa, a counselor at the Oarai Municipal Fisheries Cooperative Association, said that if poaching continues, "hamaguri clams could go extinct." He added, "We want people to enjoy clam digging while protecting resources."
(Japanese original by Minori Nagaya and Takashi Miyazaki, Mito Bureau)
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