highly polyploid apples are sold at railroad station 

 food stands. 



Until now there has been no pressing economic 

 necessity in Japan to employ genetics to produce an 

 organism better able to perform in an intensive 

 aquaculture system. Aquaculture could be ineffi- 

 cient, depend on capture of young wild animals or 

 gravid females for a kind of semifarming. be labor 

 intensive, and still be worthwhile as a means of pro- 

 ducing food and obtaining an income. This is no 

 longer the case, and the change may be attributable, 

 in part, to rising labor costs and to increasing de- 

 mands for high quality seafood by a population with 

 a higher living standard. 



EXPANSION OF INTENSIVE AQUACULTURE, 



A PREREQUISITE FOR GENETIC 



APPLICATION 



Certainly, the genetic study of wild fish popula- 

 tions has some profound implications for fishery 

 management. Genetic knowledge of wild popula- 

 tions, in addition, makes for more judicious selection 

 from such wild populations of the founding popula- 

 tions used to breed hatchery stocks with particular 

 characteristics. The hatchery breeding of special, 

 though still undomesticated, stocks for release to the 

 wild represents still another area of genetics little 

 considered in the fisheries. Such methods have been 

 employed in forestry and grassland management, at 

 least, in the United States. However, the deliberate 

 severe alteration of the genotype of the wild or- 

 ganism, which aquaculturists need to transform the 

 wild fish or invertebrate into a domesticated or cul- 

 tivated form, requires, to begin with, intensive and 

 fairly successful aquaculture of the organism. For 

 that reason, it is important to note here the current 

 status of aquaculture programs in Japan. 



At the opening of the Oceanoiogy Conference in 

 Tokyo (Second International Ocean Development 

 Conference. 1972). it was indicated in a special talk 

 that one of five major projects recommended by a 

 special Council for Ocean Development created in 

 July 1969, as an advisory organ to the Prime Minis- 

 ter, was the development offish culture with under- 

 sea experimental farms. This is, it was explained, 

 because Japan's coastal fishing has declined owing 

 to pollution and overfishing, because of the exclu- 

 sion of Japan from some fisheries in their part of the 

 world by neighboring nations, and because of an 

 intensification of the world "fishing race." New 

 fishing grounds will be developed and underutilized 



species exploited. Still of great importance, the 

 Council believes, will be the switchover in the fish 

 industry to farming-type endeavors. The necessity 

 of breed improvement for maximum success in such 

 intensive culture under artificial conditions seems to 

 be well understood. 



At the same conference Akio Honma from the 

 Fishery Agency. Ministry of Agriculture and Forest- 

 ry, gave a presentation on ""Fish farming in Japan." 

 Honma said that in the fishing field, farming, along 

 with concomitant management and breeding, has 

 been applied in the past only to a few freshwater 

 species and to a few species of seaweeds and crusta- 

 ceans. Over the years 1962-1966 the government's 

 Fishery Agency established five Fish Farming Cen- 

 ters to encourage coastal fishing in the Seto Inland 

 Sea. The entire Seto Inland Sea is being considered 

 as one huge pond. Several important marine species 

 are to be preserved and multiplied. Fry are bred at 

 the centers and released to the prefectures for raising 

 and releasing. In this program for the Seto Inland 

 Sea a certain period of growth will be left to nature 

 eliminating the necessity of using cheaper fish for the 

 farming of more expensive fish. 



Catching and releasing fry, as a source of seed, 

 proved entirely inadequate. Seed breeding from arti- 

 ficially spawned animals is now the work of the 

 project. It was found that, on the whole, breeding 

 techniques were inadequate for the scope of the un- 

 dertakings. (Here, genetic improvement in repro- 

 ductive performance under artificial conditions 

 could lead to better breeding techniques in the 

 hatcheries as an intermediate step in the total pro- 

 gram. Nothing was said of this. ) The main w ork of the 

 center is now accordingly the development of mass 

 production schemes. As the need arises, fishing ex- 

 periment station and university personnel work to- 

 gether at the center. 



It has become the policy of the government to 

 subsidize research work for seed production to some 

 nongovernment public corporation where they be- 

 lieve management is better. Seed production is the 

 area to which most money is now being directed. 



Efforts are now being made to rear artificially 

 produced fish to maturity in larger tanks so that they 

 can subsequently be used to breed another genera- 

 tion. When this is accomplished, of course, geneti- 

 cally controlled breeding will be possible. 



Systematic work in the release and control of seed 

 has been limited since so much of the project had to 

 be aimed at developing seed and better seed- 

 producing techniques. It was found that, if young 



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