KASAHARA: JAPANESE DISTANT- WATER FISHERIES 



4- 



H 3 

 c 



■:e 2 



5 



combined catch of oil inshore ond coastal (or offshore) 

 fisheries excluding shell-mollusks and seaweeds 



combined catch of mackerels, jack mackerels, 

 onchovy, soury, and squids 



56 



58 



60 



62 

 Year 



64 



66 



68 



Figure 17. — Combined catch of mackerels, jack mack- 

 erels (including Decapteriis) , anchovy, saury, and squids, 

 1956-69 (from Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 

 1971). 



ment does not appear practical at the moment, 

 because of the complexity of regulations under 

 the licensing system and the lack of understand- 

 ing of the causes of sharp decreases or rapid in- 

 creases in the abundance and catch of coastal 

 pelagic species. 



In the long run, however, this is one area in 

 which substantial improvements in efficiency, 

 and possibly in total production, might be pos- 

 sible largely by reducing fishing effort. This 

 applies to both demersal species and coastal 

 pelagic species. This would require major polit- 

 ical decisions, with great social and economic im- 

 plications. Such a process would take many 

 years in any case. 



Distant-ivater fisheries. — Although the total 

 production of distant-water fisheries has in- 

 creased very sharply, the catches of many fish- 

 eries in this category have actually been on the 

 decline in recent years, due to international reg- 

 ulation, decreases in abundance of many stocks, 

 and increasing competition with other countries. 

 The total catch of the mothership salmon fish- 

 ery in the Northwest Pacific has decreased from 

 71,000 metric tons to 40,000 tons in the last 10 

 years. (That of the land-based salmon gill-net 

 fishery has decreased from 85,000 tons to 55,000 

 tons in the same period.) The king crab catch 

 by the mothership crab fishery has declined from 

 15,000 tons in 1964 to a little over 9,000 tons in 



1969, The loss has been compensated by a sud- 

 den increase in the tanner crab catch in the last 

 3 years. The combined catch of all home-based 

 tuna longliners has declined from the peak of 

 386,000 tons (including nontuna species, such as 

 billfishes, swordfish, and sharks) in 1962 to 

 317,000 tons in 1969, and that of foreign-based 

 operations (in the South Pacific, Indian Ocean, 

 and Atlantic) from 118,000 tons in 1965 to only 

 28,000 tons in 1970. The catch of the mothership 

 tuna fishery (with deck-loaded catchers) has also 

 decreased, from 68,000 tons in 1964 to 38,000 

 tons in 1969. The long-established pair-trawl 

 fishery in the China Seas has been at about the 

 same level for the last 10 years, with a slight 

 decline in the most recent years. The total catch 

 of the trawl fisheries in the Atlantic increased 

 rapidly until 1967 and has stayed at about the 

 same level since then. 



The sharp increase in the total catch of dis- 

 tant-water fisheries, shown in Figure 16, is ac- 

 counted for mainly by the expansion of the trawl 

 fisheries in the northern North Pacific. The 

 catch of the mothership trawl fishery has in- 

 creased from 169,000 metric tons in 1959 to 

 862,000 tons in 1969. The catch of independent 

 trawlers increased from 2,000 tons to 373,000 

 tons in the same period, and that of "Hokuten- 

 sen" from nothing to 768,000 tons. The mother- 

 ship trawl fishery in the Bering Sea first de- 

 pended mainly on yellowfin sole, but emphasis 

 shifted to other species, particularly pollack, 

 when the flounder stock in the eastern Bering 

 Sea declined sharply. 



Since the introduction of minced meat ("su- 

 rimi") , the proportions of pollack in the catches 

 of these trawl fisheries have jumped up. As of 

 1969, 678,000 tons out of 862,000 tons caught 

 by the mothership trawl fishery were pollack. 

 Corresponding figures for independent trawlers 

 were 200,000 tons out of 373,000 tons (they take 

 substantial quantities of ocean perch in the Aleu- 

 tian and the Gulf of Alaska). Those for Ho- 

 kutensen were 670,000 tons out of 768,000 tons. 

 The total catch of pollack by distant-water fish- 

 eries has risen from 33,000 tons in 1959 to 1.55 

 million tons in 1969. The corresponding figures 

 for the coastal fisheries are 343,000 tons and 



273 



