Commentary on McAllister

pp. 91-94 in Traditional Technology for Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development in the Asian-Pacific Region

Proceedings of the UNESCO - University of Tsukuba International Seminar on Traditional Technology for Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development in the Asian-Pacific Region, held in Tsukuba Science City, Japan, 11-14 December, 1995.

Editors: Kozo Ishizuka, D. Sc. , Shigeru Hisajima, D. Sc. , Darryl R.J. Macer, Ph.D.

Copyright 1996 Masters Program in Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba. Commercial rights are reserved, but this book may be reproduced for limited educational purposes. Published by the Master's Program in Environmental Science and Master's Program in Biosystem Studies, University of Tsukuba, 1996.

In this article, the definition of "sustainable agriculture" by Pierre Crosson (1) has been cited, as "farming that meets rising demands over the indefinite future at economic, environmental and other social costs consistent with rising incomes".

Concerning our particular subject on the traditional technology for environmental conservation and sustainable development of salmon fishery in Canada by Dr. McAllister, it is appropriate to add the example of Japan to allow further generalization of its implications and importance for the human society.

The most typical examples of traditional technologies for salmon fisheries in Japan have been described and illustrated in a classical book, Tonegawa-zushi by Akamatsu (2), where the fishermen used to capture salmon with seine nets (e.g., Figure 1) or traps (e.g., Figure 2) when a stock of adult salmon spawners returned back from the sea-run feeding migration to their home river (the River Tonegawa) for their spawning. In the last century, on the other hand, the commercial salmon fishing has shifted from the primitive fashion in rivers to the modern fashion in the sea, with various fishing methods mostly by using stationary trap nets or drift nets in estuaries and coastal regions and then by using offshore trawl nets or floating drift nets in oceanic regions (Figure 3). The most advanced method in the modern commercial salmon fishing in Japan was the mother-boat fishery system started in 1951. This fishery continued to be prosperous down to 1959 when 16 mother boats were operating with 460 independent fishing boats. However, since salmon fishing was prohibited inside the 200-nautical mile economic zone of USA and USSR under international control in 1977, the salmon fisheries of Japan was reduced drastically in oceanic regions. Due to the US-Japan fishery agreements of 1986 to regulate the salmon fishing in the Bering Sea, finally, the mother-boat system fishery of Japan was forced to end in 1994 (Figure 4).

In contrast with the recent drastic reduction of salmon catch in oceanic regions, salmon fishing using stationary trap nets in coastal regions of Japan (Figure 5) has become more and more important, according to the fishery statistics by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (3). The structure of the modern stationary trap nets (Figure 5) is identical with that of a primitive fishing trap (Figure 2) used to capture salmon in rivers traditionally (1).

An evolutionary pattern has been generally recognized as specific energy consumption from unicell to heterothermic metazoans to homiothermic metazoans to industrialized and 'space age' humans. One of the examples is shown as the distance traveled approximation (4) that indicates an increase in the independence at a large cost in terms of weight-specific energy consumption (Figure 6). This implies that the use of energy by technically advanced societies appears to be a part of human social evolution and an extension of our biological evolution from more primitive life forms.

In the history of salmon fishing, the most progressed stage of human social evolution was the application of mother-boat system fishery with great energy consumption. Its extinction by the international enforcement resulted in technical retrograding back to the stage of salmon fishing using stationary trap nets may give an impression of retrograde human social evolution, because it is accompanied by less energy consumption.

This does not necessary mean, however, retrograding of the system of salmon fishing in Japan from the energetic view point, because salmon accumulate their greatest biomass as possible by completing the feeding migration in the ocean before their catch. Hence people can harvest the greatest salmon biomass with the minimum of energy consumption. Also because the present salmon population was shown to have approached the carrying capacity of the natural oceanic environments (Figure 4), humanity is putting great energy now into salmon enhancement to enlarge the carrying capacity of the oceans (5). Again for this effort, the future application of traditional technologies and sustainable development of hatchery activity is essential for the environmental conservation.

References

1. Plucknett, D. L. and Winkelmann, D. L. (1995): Technology for substainable agriculture. Sci. Am. 273(3), 148-152.
2. Akamatsu, M. (1855): Tonegawa-zushi. 6 volumes.
3. Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan (1995): 1993 yearbook of fishery statistics of Japan. Catches and aquaculture production. Publication of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan.
4. Parsons, T. R. and Harrison, B. (1981): Energy utilization and evolution. J. Social Struct. 4, 1-5.
5. Childerhose, R. J. and Trim, M. (1979): Pacific salmon and Steelhead trout. Douglas & McIntyre. Vancouver.

Figure 2: A traditional trap used for capturing salmon in the River Tonegawa

(reproduced from an illustration in Tonegawa-zushi by Akamatsu (2).

Figure 3: The floating drift net in oceanic regions for the modern commercial salmon fishing of Japan.

Figure 4: The salmon catch in last decade, based on the fishery statistics by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (3).

Figure 5: The modern stationary trap nets in coastal regions of Japan.

Figure 6: The weight specific energy consumption plotted against the distance travelled by different biologically and socially evolved classes of organisms. (4)