ARTIFICIAL REEFS IN JAPAN - A GENERAL OUTLINE

The author had the opportunity to study in detail the history and 'state of the art' of artificial reefs in Japan, during a two-year research program under a scholarship of the French Foreign Affairs Ministry. It was found that methodology as well as results in artificial reef research are very weak and need to be re-evaluated. As a contribution to a better understanding of artificial reef techniques, a synthetic classification is proposed together with a rational survey method. The stage of fisheries is briefly presented (as of 1985) and aquacultural engineering problems applied to artificial fishing ground planning are analyzed.