A Japanese Fisheries Agency panel has approved an expansion of the fiscal 2025 fishing quota for the Japanese common squid by 1,800 tons following bigger-than-expected catches.

At its meeting Wednesday, a subcommittee of the Fisheries Policy Council gave the green light to the plan to increase the quota for the year through March 2026 to 27,600 tons from 25,800 tons at present, mainly by reallocating the portion reserved for adjustment.

The increase will also cover small fishing boats, which were ordered last week to suspend operations, but they will not be allowed to resume fishing as the total quota for small boats has already exceeded the newly approved level.

The total quota for the squid for the current year was initially set at 19,200 tons, down 60,000 tons from a year before, following poor catches in recent years.

Once the squid fishing season began, however, catches turned out unexpectedly good, and the quota was boosted by 6,600 tons in September. Ahead of the high season, there have been calls for increasing the quota again, mainly from Hokkaido.

By prefecture, the quota will be increased to 2,998 tons from 2,600 tons for Hokkaido and to 915 tons from 700 tons for Toyama.

As of Oct. 24, small fishing boats had caught 5,896 tons, against the original limit of 4,900 tons, prompting the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry to order them to stop fishing from Saturday through March 2026. They will remain under the order as their catches already exceed the newly set limit of 5,757 tons.

At Wednesday's subcommittee meeting, some participants called for allowing squid fishing by small fishing boats. The subcommittee agreed that the central government should be actively involved in coordinating the reallocation of the remaining reserved portion of the quota.