Shallow sea Aquiculture in the Mutsu Bay

Abstract

In the Mutsu bay the aquiculture of laver and scallop are carried on. The laver-culture in the Mutsu bay, to compare with such in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, is not profitable because of its late growth resulted from lower water temperature of the Mutsu bay and the long distance from the markets. On the other hand the scallop culture, in spite of a large burden to the coast-fisherman, (it involves plenty of expences for equipment and labor) pays much better, because the Mutsu bay is situated closer to the markets than Hokkaido, wich is the other main producing district. Okunai fishery cooperation made and eary start in the investigation of this industry in order to recover from the depression caused by the decline of drift-net fihsing. They succeeded in the device of a new method of scallop culture in cages hanged in the sea, and now Okunai is a center of the scallop culture in the Mutsu bay. But Okunai fishery cooperation failded to expand the authorized area because of their limitations, therefore Okunai fishery cooperation is forced to restrict the management scale per one group in order to enable more groups to join.