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FIGURE 22. These charocters ore for the Kuroshio, literally "Block 

 Streom." Originating in the tropical and subtropical woters of the 

 western Pacific, the great worm stream sweeps olong much of the 

 east coast of Jopan before turning eostword. Associated with it are 

 some of the richest fisheries in the world. 



the tropical latitudes of the western Pacific Ocean alon^ 

 the Pacific shore of Japan as far north as northern Honshu 

 and then veers to the east-northeast (fig. 22). It lo.ses 

 its identity as a distinct current near long. 160° K., where 

 it merges into the great east-flowing North Pacific Cur- 

 rent which dominates the circulation in midlatitudes east 

 of the international date line. 



Some of the great fisheries of Japan are located in or 

 near the Kuroshio. Partly as a result of this circumstance, 

 the Kuroshio system has been under intensive study since 

 the late 19th century. Immense amounts of data have 

 been collected over the years, but oceanographers have 

 long recognized that there continued to be rather wide 

 gaps in their knowledge of this interesting and productive 

 region. 



In the early 1960's a group of marine scientists con- 

 ceived the idea of a broad-scale international study to fill 

 in some of these gaps. CSK was established under the aus- 

 pices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and 

 Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Fishery aspects of the 

 investigation were coordinated by FAO. 



Eleven nations have agreed to cooperate in the .study: 

 the Republic of China, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of 

 Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Thai- 

 land, the United Kingdom (Hong Kong), the United States, 

 the U.S.S.R., and South Viet Nam. The directing body of 

 CSK is an International Coordinating Group, whose mem- 

 bers are the National Coordinators and Assistant National 

 Coordinators of the various nations. These officials are 

 selected by their governments. 



The scientists who planned CSK recognized that the 

 origins of the great current must lie far to the south of 

 Japan and that the Kuroshio influences and is influenced 

 by oceanographic and meteorological conditions over a very 

 wide sector of the western Pacific (hence the "ad.jacent 

 regions" of the title) . The area nominally under investiga- 



33 



