Now that we have some 330,000-pleasure boats in Japan, their berthing is posing an extensive problem. This figure is nearly twice the size of our commercial fishing fleet in commission, and it is not realistic to construct new places to accommodate them all. The only proper course of action is to make more use of local harbors that are scattered along our long coastlines, fishing as well as commercial, as is already done for example in Sweden, where the number of pleasure boats per person is about 30 times larger than ours. Most our harbors still have enough space for such berthing and new realistic policy for such action is what is really required.

Last September, amongst many unresolved points of conflict, the MHLC Convention on the conservation and management of highly migratory fish stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean was adopted. For such resource management to be effective, littoral and shipping countries must persistently search for acceptable common ground. Furthermore, Japan needs to follow developments closely and further discussions domestically on the approach to be taken towards any issues.

Our earth is suffering from illness. Its shrieks of terror can be heard in abnormal weather patterns, global warming and other environmental phenomenon. Our mother ocean is losing her purifying ability and her powers of natural recovery are being threatened. Vessels freely come and go on the surface of our mother ocean. Despite them being the vessels that bring us much happiness and wealth, at the end of the line their scrapping more than often has harmful effects on our environment.