SOME IMPRESSIONS REGARDING GENETICS AND 

 THE FISHERIES OF JAPAN 



A. CROSBY LONGWELL' 



INTRODUCTION 



This report is based on a tour of Japanese 

 laboratories concerned with aquaculture or subjects 

 pertinent to it, 8-13 October 1972; and on atten- 

 dance at the Second International Ocean Develop- 

 ment Conference, Tokyo, Japan. 5-7 October 1972. 



Tour included: Oyster Research Institute at 

 Kesen-numa on Mohne Bay; Pearl Research 

 Laboratory of the Fisheries Agency at Kashiko- 

 jima, Mie-ken (Director, T. Hayashi); Ocean Re- 

 search Institute of the University of Tokyo; Nikko 

 Branch of Freshwater Fisheries Research Labora- 

 tory at Nikko on Lake Chuzenji (Director, K. Ono- 

 dera); Tohoku University School of Fisheries; To- 

 hoku Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory. 



BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON 

 GENETICS IN JAPANESE FISHERIES 



There has been, in the past, no overall, concerted 

 effort at applying genetics to the aquaculture en- 

 deavors of Japan which are without dispute the most 

 extensive in the world. Now, however, in conjunc- 

 tion with a national research program on aquaculture 

 it appears that some special committee on the appli- 

 cation of genetics to aquaculture is being organized. 



Since the advent of genetics at the turn of the 

 century, Japan has had a number of highly trained 

 geneticists, many of world renown, invariably prom- 

 inent at International Congresses of Genetics. 

 Breeding sciences and genetics are regarded impor- 

 tant enough for school children to memorize the 

 names of famous Japanese (Kihara) and American 

 (Sears) wheat geneticists. Genetic applications to 

 breeding have, however, been with few exceptions 

 in agriculture not in fisheries, the same situation as in 

 the United States. 



' Milt'ord Laboratory. MACFC. National Marine Fisheries 

 Service. NO.A.A. Milford. CT 06460. 



Japan has had nothing at least in recent years 

 equivalent to the symposium the Russians held in 

 1968, "Genetics, selection, and hybridization of 

 fish," published in 1969 (Cherfas, 1969), and trans- 

 lated in 1972 through the auspices of the National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Nor has 

 the United States.) It is relatively in recent years that 

 there has been a reinstatement of Mendelian, 

 "Western" genetics in Russia after years of 

 propaganda — serving Lysenkoism (which proposed 

 that most of "heredity" was due to environment). 

 Perhaps the Russians, with all vested interests in 

 traditional fields of genetics disbursed, are now more 

 free to address the reestablished discipline of ge- 

 netics to the new research challenges of the time 

 of which aquaculture is certainly one. 



In any comparison of the application of genetics to 

 agriculture and to fisheries, irrespective of what 

 nation's research programs are being discussed, it 

 should be noted that even prehistoric man was work- 

 ing on the cultivation of land crops and domestica- 

 ting animals. Modem man, on the other hand, is still 

 for the most part content, correctly or incorrectly, 

 with leaving marine organisms wild. University 

 schools of fisheries are dedicated to the advance- 

 ment of the science and art of fishing wild fish in the 

 wild. No doubt, this is partly the result of man's lack 

 of day-to-day familiarity with aquatic organisms, 

 one measure of his failure to control the seas as he 

 does land. Also, the advance of civilization necessi- 

 tated the promotion and ultimate success of agricul- 

 ture as wild crops and animals disappeared in its 

 wake. In the same way pollution of the seas may 

 assure the promotion of aquaculture over the span of 

 the next few decades. 



Whatever the background reasons only presently 

 is genetics beginning to be applied to the fisheries in 

 Japan, which rank among the most important indus- 

 tries of this island nation. By contrast triploid seed- 

 less watermelons are bred in Japan from sterile 

 crosses made between special lines, and giant. 



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