In the late 1920' s bait fish were found at Truk, and development 

 there began. Realizing that some form of subsidy would be needed to 

 get commercial production started, the Japanese Liinistry of Agricul- 

 ture and Commerce offered special inducements to Ckinawan fishermen 

 who would migrate to the new centers. These inducements were in the 

 nature of cash awards for the construction and outfitting of fishing 

 vessels and for shore installations. As production increased and the 

 fishery got on a more stable basis, a number of fishermen organized 

 cooperative fishery companies, while others operated their own ves- 

 sels independently. By the early 1930' s, operations had been extended 

 from the original localities around Saipan, Truk and Palau, to Ponape, 

 Kusiae, Yap and Jaluit. Because of the long distance involved (approxi- 

 mately 2000 miles from Tokyo to the Palaus), the catch was processed 

 for export in the form of dried bonito sticks, which represented 

 about 17 percent of the round weight of fish, as shown in table 5. 

 It is interesting to note that producers of this item in the Japanese 

 homeland were not pleased to have competition from a new direction 

 and at first adopted customary methods of trying to freeze out 

 competition. 



Table 5— Weight Relation of Bonito Sticks 

 to Fresh Bonito. 



Pounds 



Year Fresh Bonito Bonito Sticks Percent 



i93o~ 14,265,772 2,422,856 17 



1937 34,060,809 5,812,745 17 



1938 U,958,592 2,501,222 17 

 1941 11,545,053 1,333,840 11.6 1/ 



1/ It is reasonable to suppose that this low figure was 

 in some way connected with beginning of the war. 



The Fishing Industry during the War Years. 1942-1945 . -In order to 

 make clear the post-war status of fisheries in the ex-mandate, we must 

 bridge the gap between pre-war development and the end of hostilities. 

 Our data on this transitional phase from peace to war are in part 

 from native observers and in part from Japanese reports. From statis- 

 tics of production and processing (table 4) we can obtain a fair esti- 

 mate of conditions in the fishing industry of the mandate in 1941, as 

 Japan was about to enter the war. The bulk of the production of food 

 fish was in the Carolines, at Truk, Palaus, and Ponape in that order, 

 followed by Saipan in the Marianas, and a small amount from Jaluit 

 in the Marshalls. As the Yap production is not excessive for local 

 consumption, it is unlikely that any was exported to the homeland. 



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