Japanese, Soviet, and South Korean 

 Fisheries off Alaska 



Development and History Through 1966 



By 



PHILIP E.CHITWOOD 



Foreign Fisheries Analyst 



Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 



Office of Enforcement and Surveillance 



Juneau, Alaska 99801 



ABSTRACT 



The history of fisheries off Alaska by a nation from across the Pacific Ocean dates 

 back to 1930. In that year Japan dispatched a king crab expedition into the eastern 

 Bering Sea. Japanese exploitation of the eastern Bering Sea fishery resources was 

 expanded in 1933 when a groundfish fishery was initiated. By 1941, Japan's fisheries in 

 the eastern Bering Sea had been halted because the Imperial Navy had requisitioned most 

 of Japan's vessels for use in World War II. 



In 1952, after a lapse of 1 1 years, Japanese fishing off Alaska resumed. In that year 

 the Japanese began fishing for salmon along the western Aleutian Islands. In 1953, they 

 resumed their prewar fisheries in the eastern Bering Sea. 



The Japanese fleets off Alaska were joined in 1959 by U.S.S.R. fleets, which began 

 fishing flounder and king crab in the eastern Bering Sea and whaUng along the Aleutian 

 Islands. 



During the early 1960's, both the Japanese and the Soviets accelerated their 

 exploitation of the fishery resources off Alaska, working new grounds and taking 

 additional species. By the close of 1966, fisheries of these two nations engulfed nearly all 

 the 550,000 square nautical miles of the Continental Shelf off Alaska. Their fleets ranged 

 from Dixon Entrance in the south and east, to beyond Attu Island in the west, and into 

 the Arctic Ocean in the north. Also in 1966, another Asian nation. South Korea, made 

 preparations to enter the fisheries off Alaska. 



INTRODUCTION 



"Freedom of the seas" has many connotations, and 

 the phenomenal expansion of Japanese and Soviet 

 fisheries into the oceans of the world leaves no doubt 

 that these two nations are taking advantage of that 

 principle of international law. 



The development of global fisheries by Japan and the 

 Soviet Union has made those two nations world leaders 

 in fisheries. Only Peru and possibly mainland China 

 compare closely with Japan and the U.S.S.R. in annual 

 fishery landings (Lyles, 1967). Japanese and Soviet 

 fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean have been important 

 factors in the rising status of the fishing industries of 

 those nations. Within a few years, fisheries of both 

 nations have spread rapidly across the North Pacific, 

 engulfing Alaska's vast Continental Shelf from the 

 central Bering Sea to British Columbia (table 1). Massive 

 Japanese and Soviet fleets with some of the world's most 



modern fishing and associated vessels operate year-round 

 off Alaska and annually catch over 3 billion pounds of 

 fish, shellfish, and whales. The monthly average number 

 of Japanese and Soviet fishery vessels (excluding the 

 Japanese higli-seas salmon fleets) off Alaska in 1963-66 

 is shown in figure 1. 



South Korean fishing off Alaska has consisted of an 

 exploratory venture by one vessel in 1966. Entry of that 

 nation, however, into the fisheries off Alaska on a large 

 scale appears imminent. 



A review of Japanese, Soviet, and South Korean 

 fisheries off Alaska from their inception through 1966 is 

 presented in this report. Much of the information has 

 been gathered by Bureau of Commercial Fisheries agents 

 while on enforcement and surveillance patrols of the 

 foreign fisheries and from other unpublished sources. 

 Published sources of information are cited. 



