Reconstruction of Fishing Communities and Fishery Regions

Abstract

Almost all of the fishing ports and fishing villages in the Sanriku region were completely destroyed by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami disaster on March 11, 2011. Since the disaster, many proposals for fishing port and fishing village restoration and reconstruction have been submitted by various academic associations, public entities and academic authorities.

In this paper, the author studies the restoration and reconstruction of such small fishing ports and communities, based on four key discussion points.

The first discussion is about the method of reconstructing fishing villages, focusing on the case of Okushiri Island. The second debates the deregulation of fishery rights that is given to fishery cooperatives. The third promotes joint fishery management in fishing villages. The fourth concerns the consolidation of fishing ports and villages down to 1/3 or 1/5 of the current number.

Promotion of these four discussion points is closely related to the restoration and reconstruction of fishing ports.