Another reason to love high gas prices

Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images The Japanese fishing industry is in dire straits, the LA Times reports: If we lose our fishing industry, we Japanese will face a food crisis,” said Masahiko Ariji, a fishery specialist at the Amita Institute for Sustainable Economics in Kyoto. About two-thirds of the nation’s fishing groups were in the red last ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
593926_080717_tuna5.jpg
593926_080717_tuna5.jpg

Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images

Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images

The Japanese fishing industry is in dire straits, the LA Times reports:

If we lose our fishing industry, we Japanese will face a food crisis,” said Masahiko Ariji, a fishery specialist at the Amita Institute for Sustainable Economics in Kyoto. About two-thirds of the nation’s fishing groups were in the red last year, he said. With fuel prices higher this year, some “are about to collapse.” […]

If fuel prices keep rising, as many as 20% of Japan’s fishing companies will close and 85,000 fishermen could leave the industry, the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Assns said. The fish catch, it says, could fall by almost half.

On balance, the fact that the Japanese fishing industry is suffering isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If the trend keeps up, high gas prices might end up saving Pacific fisheries from imminent doom where regulation and conservation have failed. Add this one to the list.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

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