insights from frontier Japan

The early life of a female sea otter born in April 2020 off Cape Kiritappu in Hamanaka, eastern Hokkaido, has been documented in a crowdfunded book published by local resident Yoshihiro Kataoka.

On March 30, the Ministry of the Environment upgraded the Akkeshi Prefectural Natural Park (in Akkeshi, Kushiro and Hamanaka in the Kushiro region of eastern Hokkaido) to a quasi-national park, and designated it the Akkeshi Kiritappu Kombumori Quasi-national Park.

On February 4 at Cape Kiritappu in the town of Hamanaka in eastern Hokkaido, a sea otter was seen swimming amidst pancake ice patches where the seawater surface had frozen.

In an effort to shine a public relations spotlight on the highest quality in kelp-fed farm-raised sea urchin of the Strongylocentrotus intermedius species, a Council made up of members including the town government of eastern Hokkaido's Hamanaka Town has unified sea urchin products under the brand name "Hamanaka Yoshoku Uni" (Hamanaka Farm Sea Urchin). The Council started shipping product nationwide under this brand name in November.

The fishery scene on the Hokkaido coast is seeing changes, possibly due to climate change. Catches of Pacific saury and Pacific flying squid, long caught in the waters around Hokkaido, have dwindled. Fishermen are finding more species usually captured in warmer waters, such as dolphinfish, in their fishing nets. Fishermen and seafood processors are being forced to adopt to the change that experts believe the rise in sea temperature in recent years may be behind.