Aquatic Habitat Technology Innovation in Japan

Japan's Ensei Program, launched in 1976, aims to develop a whole new generation of technologies which will help ensure a stable supply of seafood for Japan into the 21st century. Through this program, Japan hopes to convert its fishing emphasis from foreign waters to domestic waters, and from the conventional catch-wherever-you-can approach to the enhance-the-stock-and-control-harvest approach. Backed by government subsidies and pulling resources from government, industry and academia, the Ensei Program has already made a number of notable technological advances. This paper reviews these advances based on the lectures presented at the Japan—U.S. Symposium on Artificial Habitats for Fisheries, June 1991 in Tokyo, a keynote lecture presented by M. Nakamura, and a special session on Japanese habitat technology at the Fifth International Conference on Aquatic Habitat Enhancement in November 1991 at Long Beach, California.