Identifying Priority Improvement Work for Kelp Farming Management Bodies Based on a Work Analysis

Abstract

The workforce in Japan’s fishing industry is shrinking. This study sought to identify improvements in working conditions to slow the declining numbers of fishermen and enable kelp fisheries in Fukushima-cho, Hokkaido Prefecture, to maintain current production volumes. Work and time studies were carried out to estimate fishing work times in two sample management bodies (farmer S1 and farmer S2). The findings showed that mechanizing the scraping of hydrozoa from kelp could effectively address the problem of declining workers. The study determined that if scraping hydrozoa from kelp could be mechanized, farmer S2 could cope with a loss of up to four workers from the current workforce. However, if the daily cost of running the machinery exceeds the labor cost of four workers (4,305 yen in the case of farmer S2) and if the working time per kelp is not reduced to approximately one-fourth of the current work time (11.4 sec in the case of farmer S2), mechanization will reduce the production volume from present levels. These issues can be clarified by estimating the amount of time spent working, based on the time required for operations and the numerical information that can be applied to organize and forecast fisheries’ production.