4. During March operations one carrier vessel was sunk, and 

 damages were sustained by three others. The equivalent of six whales, 

 representing 46 metric tons of food, was lost with the sinking of the 

 "Shinsei Maru No 3 B . All damages resulted from collisions with the mother 

 ship during transfers of cargo in the rough open sea. 



5. Whaling operations continued into April (Appendix V). During 

 the first 18 days of April, 54 whales were captured. The season was con- 

 cluded by the Ocean Fishing Co 18 April. Reasons advanced for the prema- 

 ture termination of operations were (a) the advent of warmer weather was 

 making preservation of whale products, especially meat, increasingly diffi- 

 cult; and (b) the whaling season was about to begin in arreas nearer Japan 

 Proper. 



6. The Ocean Fishing Co reported a number of conditions which 

 adversely affected its operations: 



a. Sei whales did not occur in normal abundance. 



b. Rough weather during the latter half of March hampered 

 operational functions, especially the transfers of cargo from its small 

 mother ship to carriers. 



c. Prohibition of the use of harbors required the mother 

 snip to stay at sea throughout the season. Breakdowns in equipment seri- 

 ously reduced operating efficiency. 



7. The first shipment of whale meat arrived in Japan from the 

 Bonin Islands 13 March 1946 aboard the H Shinsei Maru No 6""^ (Table 3). 

 Succeeding shipments were brought to the Tokyo Central Fish Market for 



consignment to various 

 parts of the country 

 (Table 4). In the Tokyo 

 area, distribution of 

 meat and other edible pro- 

 ducts was made to the 

 populaoe through local 

 "neighborhood associations" 

 Meat in fairly good con- 

 dition *as retailed at 

 ¥3.33 per 100 "momme" 

 (0.82 pounds). Viscera 

 were processed into fish 

 cakes, bone was used for 

 making fertilizer, and 

 hide was utilized as a 

 Dissected parts of a sperm whale about to leather substitute, 

 enter the press boiler aboard the mother ship. 



14 



