Coastal Area 11501 Adjacent waters of Kameda Peninsula

Basic Information References

Reason(s) for selection Criteria

Characteristics References

These waters extend from the northern part of the Kameda Peninsula to Kikonai Bay, including Hakodate Bay in the south. The coastal zone of these waters is home to a stable environment in the form of Laminaria japonica kelp forest (Nakaoka, personal communication). The northern part of the Kameda Peninsula has a coastal ecosystem of mixed seaweed beds and eel grass beds, while in the south, the waters extend from ones dominated by seaweed beds to a mixture with sea grass beds along the coastline that extends to Hakodate. In particular, the coast in the vicinity of Cape Shiokubi (the shore zone from Oma in the town of Esan to Oyasu in the town of Toi) is home to six species of kombu kelp, and the limits of distribution of seaweed species here have been confirmed to reflect the ebbs and flows of warm- and cold-water currents. It also is know for its variation in forms and ecosystems of Laminaria japonica kelp (Ministry of the Environment, 2001). Hakodate Bay and the southern Kameda Peninsula also serve as wintering grounds for Brent goose (Ministry of the Environment, 2001). Areas of continuous shallow waters from Hakodate Bay to the south, such as Ishikari Bay, are important flounder spawning grounds, and they also are home to abundant shellfish (Sakurai, personal communication).