FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70. NO. 2 



Different types of draggers for bottom fish 

 have existed for several hundred years, and some 

 of the primitive kinds can still be seen in in- 

 shore waters. The enactment of a law providing 

 various incentives for development of offshore 

 fisheries in 1898 and the introduction of two 

 European-type trawlers (one imported from 

 England and one constructed in Japan) in 1908 

 marked the beginning of modern trawl fishing 

 in Japan. The fishery expanded very rapidly, 

 the number of otter trawlers reaching 136 by 

 1912. This resulted in serious conflicts with in- 

 shore fishermen, prompting the government to 

 issue trawl fishery regulations establishing large 

 closed areas in coastal waters and to stop the ap- 

 plication of subsidies to trawlers under the pro- 

 motion law. 



These measures forced otter trawlers to move 

 into the East China Sea, leading to the discovery 

 of new abundant resources of groundfishes, par- 

 ticularly highly valued porgies (sparids). The 

 colonial administration of Korea immediately 

 established large closed areas to shut out these 

 trawlers from its coastal waters, thus pushing 

 the fishery farther offshore. High costs of op- 

 eration and overproduction, combined with a 

 great demand for large vessels during World 

 War I, resulted in a drastic reduction of trawl 

 vessels, with only six remaining in 1918. The 

 government, in 1917, established a new set of 

 regulations and limited the total number of otter 

 trawlers to 70, with a minimum size of 200 gross 

 tons. This maximum number of 70 remained 

 unchanged for many years for otter trawlers 

 in the East China Sea (including the Yellow 

 Sea). 



Among the primitive methods of catching 

 groundfishes, winddriven dragging and hand- 

 hauling bottom fishing were considered most 

 efficient in early years. With the introduction 

 of powered vessels, the latter method developed 

 into one somewhat similar to Danish seining. 

 This fishery expanded very rapidly beginning in 

 the 1910's and has since been a major source 

 of conflicts between fishermen in inshore and 

 coastal waters. The number of powered drag- 

 gers exceeded 2,000 in the 1920's and became 

 subject to new regulations in an attempt to con- 

 trol expansion and reduce conflicts with inshore 



fishei^men. Meanwhile, the method of trawling 

 by two vessels was introduced in 1920 and this 

 fishery, too, began to expand at a rapid rate. 

 Pair trawlers immediately started fishing in the 

 East China Sea; the government then took action 

 to control pair trawling in waters west of long 

 130 °E under a separate set of regulations, the 

 practice still in effect today. 



Although both pair trawling and Danish sein- 

 ing became subject to ministerial regulations, 

 the authority to issue licenses for these fisheries 

 still lay in the prefectural governors. As a re- 

 sult, the expansion of the pair-trawl fishery in 

 the China Sea continued, the number of its ves- 

 sels reaching nearly 700 plus some 400 operating 

 from the Japanese fishing bases in mainland 

 China and Taiwan. In 1933, the authority to 

 issue licenses for both pair trawling and Danish 

 seining was transferred to the central govern- 

 ment. The government then instituted a long- 

 term plan to reduce these vessels, particularly 

 Danish seiners in waters east of long 130°E, 

 which were causing serious overfishing and con- 

 flicts with inshore fishermen. The plan was im- 

 plemented for several years with some success, 

 but with numerous problems arising from the 

 increasing number of illegal vessels and viola- 

 tions of closed areas. The power to issue li- 

 censes (east of long 130°E) was transferred 

 back to the provincial governments during World 

 War II and remained there until 1947 when it 

 was again given to the central government. A 

 new cycle of various efforts to control the ex- 

 pansion of Danish seining and pair trawling and 

 reduce the numbers of these vessels began in 

 1950-51, when the nation was still under oc- 

 cupation. 



Regulatory measures taken during the pre- 

 war years to control the trawl fisheries of Japan 

 established a pattern for allocating groundfish 

 resources to different types of trawling: the 

 stocks in coastal and nearby waters largely to 

 the Danish-seine fishery (in the richest grounds 

 off northern Honshu and Hokkaido) and partly 

 to the pair-trawl fishery (in the western part 

 of Japan) ; the stocks in the China Sea mainly 

 to the pair-trawl and partly to the otter-trawl 

 fishery; and the stocks in distant- water grounds 

 to the otter-trawl fishery using large vessels. 



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