Season's 1st snow crab auction in Tottori

Season's 1st snow crab auction in Tottori

A ceremony for the season's first auction of snow crabs is held at Sakai port in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, on Nov. 7, 2024, as fishing of the winter delicacy began west of Toyama Prefecture in the Sea of Japan the day before.

Snow crab fishermen head out to sea as fishing season starts

Snow crab fishermen head out to sea as fishing season starts

YONAGO, Japan - Sent off by family members and other well-wishers, a Japanese snow crab boat heads out to sea from Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture on Aug. 31 as the fishing season for snow crab in the Sea of Japan starts on Sept. 1. According to the fishermen's cooperative in Sakaiminato, Japan's largest crab fishing port, the volume of snow crabs caught in the Sea of Japan has been declining gradually partly due to over-trapping. To conserve the snow crab population, snow crab fishermen in Japan have imposed a ceiling on the volume of snow crabs to be caught starting this year. Fishermen are also required to use trapping baskets with 9.5-centimeter rings to enable smaller crabs to escape when trapped. Japanese fishermen caught 10,952 tons of crabs in the Sea of Japan last year, 60 percent of them snow crab.

USS Patriot visits Sakaiminato

USS Patriot visits Sakaiminato

YONAGO, Japan - Lt. Cmdr. Suzanne Schang (2nd from R), commanding officer of the USS Patriot, is pictured inside the ship at Sakai port in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture on March 5, 2012. The 1,250-ton minesweeper, deployed at the U.S. Navy's Sasebo base in Nagasaki Prefecture, arrived at the port the same day to promote friendship with local residents, according to the U.S. Consulate General Osaka-Kobe.

3 N. Koreans on way home after being found drifting off Japan

3 N. Koreans on way home after being found drifting off Japan

SAKAIMINATO, Japan - A helicopter carrying three North Korean men is taxied to a hanger at a Japan Coast Guard air base in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, on Jan. 9, 2012, as the three make their way back to North Korea via Fukuoka and Beijing. The North Koreans were found drifting aboard a small boat with the body of a fellow crew member in the Sea of Japan off the islands of Okinoshima on Jan. 6, 2012.