Japan's top skipjack tuna port faces sharp catch decline
Isuzu Shrine prayers met a harder signal at sea: Kesennuma’s skipjack tally fell to a fraction of last year’s pace, and the market lost its bigger fish.
At Isuzu Shrine in Shinmeizaki, fishermen gathered to pray for safe voyages and big catches. The timing felt ceremonial, but the warning signal was plain: Kesennuma, Japan’s top skipjack tuna port for 28 straight years, was suddenly seeing far fewer fish and a market strain that went beyond simple volume.
Kesennuma landed about 19,979 tons of fresh skipjack tuna in 2024, far ahead of Katsuura’s 5,086 tons. By late August 2025, though, local reports said Kesennuma’s fresh skipjack landings had slumped to about 3,376 tons, less than 20 percent of the previous year’s pace, and officials warned the port’s 29-year run at No. 1 could end. A local report from Sept. 22 put the day’s landing at just 85 tons from nine boats, a weak showing for a port that has long set the national tone for katsuo.
The drop hit a place where fishing is not a side business but the backbone of the local economy. Kesennuma is one of Japan’s largest fishing ports, and the port and fish market were among the first places rebuilt, about two months after the 2011 tsunami. Its skipjack identity also runs deep. Kesennuma says the fishing method that became the basis of modern skipjack fishing arrived from Kishu in 1675, a history the town marked with a 350-year milestone in 2025.
What buyers noticed was not just fewer fish, but smaller ones. Fish in the 2- to 3-kilogram range were scarce, and that scarcity drove bidding wars and higher prices. One Kesennuma restaurant said its purchase price for skipjack tuna had climbed to about three times normal, while menu prices rose to about 1.5 times normal, a sharp reminder that a port’s catch figures eventually show up on the board and the plate.
Experts pointed to weaker black current effects and a broader decline in resource abundance. The pressure was not only local. The FAO said global skipjack catches were lower in January to March 2025 than in the previous quarter, even as the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission reported record-high global skipjack catch in 2024. For Kesennuma, the real test now is whether the season brings back the bigger fish and steadier landings that once made the shrine prayers feel routine.
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