Japanese chum salmon population in danger from climate change and rival pink salmon
Chum salmon in Japan are under threat from global warming and competition from another salmon species, says expert
There is trouble on the horizon in Hokkaido, northern Japan, where poor fishing conditions triggered by global warming are endangering the country’s prized salmon – considered one of the country’s favourite fish.
A researcher has warned that climate change is forcing Hokkaido’s chum salmon, which make up the bulk of Japan’s salmon catch, into a losing battle with a relative for food, hindering their return in large numbers to spawn in the rivers where they were released.
Masahide Kaeriyama, a salmon ecology expert and professor emeritus at Hokkaido University, has sounded the alarm. “If this trend continues, there will be no more salmon in Japan in the next century,” he says.
According to the Hokkaido government, salmon numbers peaked at 56.47 million in 2003, but have since plummeted to less than a third of that, reaching 15.62 million in 2024 – the second-lowest count on record since 1989.
The prolonged decline has forced seafood retailer Maruichi Suisan to increase the price of its processed salmon jerky snack by 20 per cent this winter.