KASAHARA: JAPANESE DISTANT-WATER FISHERIES 



ments signed a temporary agreement which set 

 a catch Hmit for that year. Japan undertook 

 to reduce the size of the mothership fleet as a 

 voluntary measure. 



A lot of confusion occurred in connection with 

 the procedure of obtaining licenses from the fish- 

 ery inspection agency of the Soviet Ministry of 

 Fisheries, but fishing did take place in the auth- 

 orized areas in the Pacific and Okhotsk. Under 

 the plan prepared before negotiations with the 

 Soviet Union, 12 motherships with 375 catchers 

 (including scouting boats) were to be sent to 

 the northwestern Pacific and the western Aleu- 

 tian waters, and 7 motherships with 213 catchers 

 (including scouting boats) to the Okhotsk Sea. 

 These were revised to 14 motherships with 447 

 catchers for the Pacific and Bering areas, and 

 2 motherships with 59 catchers for the Okhotsk 

 Sea. 



Since the regulatory area included part of the 

 main fishing grounds of the land-based drift-net 

 fishery, the total quota was divided into sub- 

 quotas for the mothership fishery and the land- 

 based fishery, each of which was further dis- 

 tributed among individual fishing vessels, estab- 

 lishing a precedent for an extremely detailed 

 system of catch allocation. For the land-based 

 drift-net fishery, quotas for individual vessels 

 varied depending on their gross tonnage. The 

 regulatory area under the temporary agreement 

 did not cover vast areas to the east and south 

 (Figure 7) , and therefore a large amount (near- 

 ly one-half of the total take in 1956) was caught 

 in waters outside. Due to delays in the issuance 

 of licenses, the catch quota in the regulatory area 

 was not filled within the established fishing pe- 

 riod. The land-based longline salmon fishery, 

 which began to develop in 1956, also took a con- 

 siderable amount from waters outside the reg- 

 ulatory area. 



The year 1957 was the first year of operation 

 under the provisions of the convention. After 

 hard negotiations both within and outside the 

 fishery commission, the two governments settled 

 for a total quota of 120,000 metric tons in the 

 regulatory area, which now covered waters as 

 far west as long 175°W but still excluded a sub- 

 stantial part of the land-based fishing grounds 

 in the Pacific (see Figure 3 - Area A). The 



quota was divided, under Japanese regulations, 

 between the mothership fishery and the land- 

 based drift-net fishery and further among indi- 

 vidual fishing vessels. The land-based drift-net 

 fishery made more than one-half of their catch 

 in outside waters, and the land-based longline 

 fishery took twice the amount it caught in 1956, 

 all from outside waters. The combined catch 

 of all high seas salmon fisheries was about 

 162,000 metric tons as compared with the catch 

 limit of 120,000 metric tons for the regulatory 

 area. The 1958 agreement reduced the total 

 quota to 110,000 metric tons which was again 

 divided between the mothership fishery and the 

 land-based drift-net fishery. Fishing in the 

 Okhotsk Sea was further restricted, and a large 

 closed area was established in waters off the 

 east coast of Kamchatka. 



Annual negotiations for salmon regulations 

 have resulted in further restrictions on Japanese 

 fishing. In 1959, the entire Okhotsk Sea was 

 closed to high seas salmon fishing, and additional 

 closed areas were established on the Pacific side. 

 The catch quota for the regulatory area was 

 further reduced to 85,000 metric tons, and a 

 catch limit was set for sockeye salmon. In 1960, 

 the Soviet Union proposed a southward expan- 

 sion of the regulatory area to control fishing by 

 land-based vessels carried out in outside waters. 

 The Japanese undertook to take some domestic 

 measures. The quota for the regulatory area 

 has been reduced to 67,500 tons, with additional 

 closed areas. A new step was taken in 1962 

 by designating the waters south of the previous 

 regulatory area as Regulatory Area B, with the 

 Japanese government undertaking to limit the 

 catch in Area B to about 60,000 metric tons (with 

 a 10% allowance). By then, the catch quota 

 in the original regulatory area (now Area A) 

 had been reduced to 55,000 tons. The Japanese 

 government took a drastic measure to reduce 

 the number of vessels both in the mothership fish- 

 ery and the land-based drift-net fishery. Drift- 

 net fishing in the Japan Sea was also reduced 

 substantially. In 1964, the quotas were further 

 reduced to 55,000 tons each for both Area A and 

 Area B. Table 5 shows how the salmon catch 



249 



