KASAHARA: JAPANESE DISTANT- WATER FISHERIES 



of fish produced. It is estimated that the con- 

 sumption of fish meal for culturing eels and 

 trouts alone might reach 100,000 tons in 1971 

 (the equivalent of half a million tons in live 

 weight). Fish culture in Japan is obviously a 

 means to produce high-priced products and not 

 to increase the total supply of animal protein 

 from the sea. While demand for cultured fishes 

 remains very strong, the aquaculture of the two 

 most important forms, eels and yellowtail, has 

 a serious weakness. Their young have to be col- 

 lected from natural waters. The domestic sup- 

 ply of young eels is declining, due at least partly 

 to pollution in estuarine waters, and a substan- 

 tial quantity is now being imported. The price 

 of elvers is reported to be nearly $38 a pound. 

 The above review of prospects for expansion 

 of each of the main sectors of the fishing in- 

 dustry indicates that it will become increasingly 

 difficult for the domestic supply of fish to meet 

 the evergrowing demand. In the long run, better 

 management of coastal fisheries may result in 

 a substantial increase in the total harvest, but 

 this is a painstaking and time-consuming pro- 

 cess. Further exploitation of resources in 

 distant waters may result in some increase, but 

 the scarcity of readily exploitable resources and 

 uncertainties about international problems are 

 major obstacles. Expansion of aquaculture is 

 possible, but it would have the effect of further 

 reducing the total amount of food fish available 

 as long as fish and fish meal are used as major 

 components of feeds. 



Exploitation of unconventional species. — Man 

 will have to make serious attempts to exploit 

 unconventional species in order to sustain a rea- 

 sonably high rate of growth in fishery produc- 

 tion. What is meant by unconventional species 

 is those forms which occur in great abundance 

 in wide areas of the ocean and which are dif- 

 ficult to harvest and market economically with 

 known methods. The utilization of these re- 

 sources is in a way a continuation of the recent 

 trend for exploiting a greater variety of species. 

 It appears, however, that some technological 

 breakthroughs would be required to begin large- 

 scale commercial exploitation of such forms as 

 the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and 



other larger zooplankton, red crab (Pleuron- 

 codes), lanternfishes (myctophids), gonostoma- 

 tids, deepsea smelts (bathylagids), etc. Large 

 concentrations of lanternfishes have been found 

 in most parts of the ocean. An enormous bio- 

 mass of bristlemouth (Cyclothone) occurs in the 

 tropical Pacific, The abundance of deepsea 

 smelts in the California Current system is well 

 known. Particularly interesting in this respect 

 is the existence of extensive offshore areas of 

 upwelling associated with the equatorial current 

 systems (Cushing, 1969). 



The Soviet Union has been making effort to 

 utilize Euphausia superba through experimental 

 fishing and processing, with limited success, 

 Japan has a modest program to explore the pos- 

 sibility of using larger zooplankton and progress 

 has been reported in making some products out 

 of euphausiids. Both nations still have a long 

 way to go in this area. Furthermore, fish meal 

 and other products into which these forms might 

 be processed are unlikely to substitute for highly 

 demanded conventional species although they 

 might increase the supply of feeds. 



International Business Arrangements 



One might think that Japan must have been very 

 active in developing joint ventures and other 

 forms of international arrangements to carry out 

 fishing from the coastal states near the fishing 

 grounds. For a variety of reasons, her activities 

 in this general category have been limited to a 

 few things, such as use of facilities for trans- 

 shipment of tuna caught by longliners, joint 

 ventures for shrimping, and more recently joint 

 ventures for skipjack live-bait fishing. Japanese 

 trawlers operating in West Africa have been 

 selling some of the catches locally and a few 

 vessels still operate under contracts with local 

 companies. 



There are a variety of reasons for the lack 

 of major developments in this general area. In 

 many cases, the local governments establish var- 

 ious requirements as conditions for land-based 

 foreign operations, such as investment in shore 

 facilities or nationalization of equipment and 

 crews. They may be reluctant to make such 

 concessions as tax-free imports of equipment 



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