Freezing Operations 



The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands trawl fishery (fig. 

 4) in which the catches are frozen for human 

 consumption was the last Japanese fishery off Alaska to 

 be ended by World War II and one of the first fisheries 

 to be resumed after the war. The first trawlers that were 

 known to have fished off Alaska for groundfish to be 

 frozen accompanied a factory ship in the eastern Bering 

 Sea in 1940. The fleet had nine trawlers, which fished on 

 the Continental Shelf in the eastern Bering Sea during 

 the summer. In the summer of 1941 another fleet, 

 consisting of a factory ship and 1 2 trawlers, fished in the 

 same area. Trawling in the Bering Sea was discontinued 

 from 1942 through 1953 (Alverson, Pruter, and 

 Ronholt, 1964). 



The Japanese resumed freezer operations in the 

 eastern Bering Sea in 1954 (Kibesaki, 1965). Each year 

 in 1954-59, two to four factory ships, each with four to 

 eight trawlers, operated in this fishery. Fishing took place 

 in the eastern Bering Sea from late August to early 

 October, and the catches ranged from nearly 1 1 ,000 

 tons in 1955 to almost 33,000 tons in 1959. A few 

 independent factory trawlers that froze their own 

 catches also fished in the eastern Bering Sea in 1954-59. 



From I960 through 1963 freezer operations in the 

 eastern Bering Sea decreased to 1 factory ship 

 accompanied .by about 10 trawlers, and a few 

 independent factory trawlers. Fishing was shifted from 

 on the Continental Shelf of outer Bristol Bay to along 

 the edge of the Continental Shelf in the eastern and 

 central Bering Sea and north of the eastern Aleutian 

 Islands. As a result of the change to deeper grounds, the 



species composition of the catches changed from flatfish 

 and walleye pollock to primarily Pacific ocean perch and 

 walleye pollock. 



Fishing was extended to the entire Aleutian Islands 

 chain in 1964, and the independent trawlers increased to 

 at least seven factory trawlers and two small otter 

 trawlers. Most of the catch was ocean perch. The 

 independent trawlers began to fish in March and 

 continued through the year; individual vessels fished 

 from 2 to 8 months. One factory freezer ship with 28 

 catcher vessels operated in the eastern Bering Sea in 

 1964. This fleet arrived in May and had moved west to 

 the Soviet coast by late June. 



Freezer operations became more intense in 1964— in 

 action were 9 factory trawlers, 4 small otter trawlers, 

 and 2 factory ships accompanied by a total of 29 

 trawlers. Independent trawlers fished along the Aleutian 

 Islands chain and in the eastern Bering Sea througliout 

 tlie year; they fished from 3 to 1 1 months. One of the 

 factory ship fleets fished along the Aleutian Islands from 

 late July to September, and the other fleet operated 

 along the Aleutian Islands and in the eastern Bering Sea 

 from mid-April to July and again from August into 

 September. 



The level of this fishery rose again in 1966 when 14 

 factory trawlers, 2 small otter trawlers, and 2 factory 

 ships accompanied by 1 1 trawlers caught and froze fish. 

 An intensive fishery for walleye pollock developed along 

 the lOO-fathom curve north of the Fox Islands in the 

 eastern Aleutian Islands. Pacific ocean perch, which had 

 previously dominated the catches in all areas, remained 

 the primary species south of the eastern Aleutians, along 

 the central and western Aleutians, and along the 



Figure 4.— Japanese Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish trawl fishing areas— freezer operations. 



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