The first autumn auctions of Sakura shrimp were held in Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture on Tuesday. The cherry-blossom pink crustaceans are a specialty of the prefecture's Suruga Bay.

The fall fishing season began in the bay on Monday after an almost one-week delay because of bad weather. The first auctions were held at two ports in the prefecture.

At the Yui fishing port, the selling began at around 5:30 a.m. About 30 buyers took part, surrounding the catch and checking the sizes and color.

The two ports put a total of about 2.3 tons of the catch up for the auction, up about 1.1 tons from last year's first day. The average winning bid price at the Yui port was reportedly around 75,000 yen, or about 490 dollars, for a case containing 15 kilograms -- about 11,000 yen lower compared with last year.

Fishers in the bay had seen continued poor catches of Sakura shrimp in recent years. But the local fisheries cooperative says the catch is beginning to increase as measures such as limiting the catch of juveniles have been in place.

Miyahara Junichi, head of the Yui port's fisheries cooperative, said although temperatures of the air and seawater are currently higher than usual, he believes in the true autumn fishing season will arrive gradually as cold weather is forecast for next month.

The fishing season continues until December 25.