La mer
Online ISSN : 2434-2882
Print ISSN : 0503-1540
Exchanges between Japan and France in the field of fisheries science, triggered by the mass oyster die-off in France and the export of Sanriku oyster seeds to France
Yasuyuki Koike Teruhisa Komatsu
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2024 Volume 61 Issue 3-4 Pages 107-127

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Abstract
In 1960, the Japanese-French Oceanographic Society (SFJO) was established and cooperation with France on oceanography began. In the late 1960s, oysters farmed in France died in large numbers due to diseases, and oyster farming was in danger of extinction. French researchers then approached SFJO member Professor Takeo Imai of Tohoku University to see if Sanriku oysters resistant to the diseases could be exported to France. The research team led by Professor Imai conducted quarantine and pathological tests to succeed in exporting 10, 000 t Sanriku single-seeded oysters (spat) to France. This export brought the French oyster farming industry out of crisis. Subsequently, French-Japanese cooperation also extended to fisheries science, and SFJO France was set up in 1984. On 11 March 2011, a huge tsunami hit off the coast of Sanriku, devastating aquaculture facilities. Immediately afterwards, SFJO France and French oyster farmers including another French groups contacted SFJO to support oyster farmers in Sanriku in return for their spat export. These organisations and SFJO donated essential equipment for oyster seed collection, such as microscopes and plankton nets, to the prefectural fisheries experiment stations and prefectural fisheries cooperatives in Sanriku. This article outlines the French-Japanese exchange on these fisheries science.
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© 2024 The Japanese-French Oceanographic Society
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