THE EASTERN HOKKAIDO LAND-BASED SALMON 

 FISHERY OF JAPAN 



by 



Lorry M. Nakatsu 



U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 



Seattle, Washington 



Japanese biologists have shown, through 

 tagging experiments, that the large land- 

 based salmon fleet operating off eastern 

 Hokkaido fishes some of the populations of 

 salmon bound for the Okhotsk Sea. The chum 

 and pink salmon ( Oncorhynchus sp.) appear- 

 ing in this fishery are known to migrate to 

 the Okhotsk Sea sind the surrounding area, 

 including western Kamchatka, the northern 

 Okhotsk Sea Coast, Sakhalin, and the South 

 Kurile Islands. 



The need for sampling Siberian stocks 

 of salmon was discussed at the annual meet- 

 ing of the International North Pacific 

 Fisheries Commission, involving Japjm, 

 Canada and the United States, at Vancouver, 

 B. C, Canada, in November 1957. In the 

 spring of 1958 I was assigned to sample 

 this fishery at Kushiro, Hokkaido, where I 

 remained until the end of the fishing sea- 

 son in mid-August. 



salmon fleet from that of the mothership 

 fleet. Its southern limit is defined by 

 the Japanese-Russian Fisheries Treaty Line. 

 Lying within treaty waters, this area has 

 a catch restriction. In 1958, the quota 

 was established at 18,333 metric tons.i' 



Area B covers the waters to the south 

 of the treaty line, lying entirely south of 

 45" N. latitude. It has no definite south- 

 ern limit, as explained above, and no catch 

 restrictions. 



In these two areas, the fishing sea- 

 sons vary according to the gear. Longline 

 fishing began on April 20 and closed on 

 July 31. The gill-net season opened on 

 April 1 and closed on August 10, all ves- 

 sels required to be in port by August 15 

 to land their catches. Despite the early 

 season opening, fishing does not usually 

 commence full scale until late April be- 

 cause of inclement weather. 



FISHING AREA AND SEASON 



The land-based salmon fishery of east- 

 ern Hokkaido covers the North Pacific Ocean 

 east to approximately 165° E, longitude and 

 south from 48" N. latitude to generally 40° 

 N. latitude. The southern boundary is not 

 fixed as its limits are governed only by 

 the availability of salmon. The fishing 

 area can be divided into two major subareas 

 and for purposes of convenience they are 

 designated as Area A and Area B (fig. 1), 



Area A is bounded on the east, west, 

 cUid north by lines established by the 

 Japanese Fishery Agency, separating the 

 area of operation of the Hokkaido land-based 



FISHING VESSELS AND LICENSING SYSTEM 



The fishing vessels, mostly of a wooden 

 type, are classified into three categories: 

 (1) less than 5 tons, (2) more than 5 tons 

 but less than 30 tons, and (3) more than 

 30 tons but less than 75 tons. 



\J At the Japanese -Russian fisheries negotiations held in 

 Moscow in the spring of 1958, a quota of 110, 000 metric 

 tons was set for the Japanese high-seas salmon fleet. 

 Of this amount, 6,498.4 metric tons were allocated to 

 the Okhotsk Sea motheiship fleet, 85, 168.6 metric tons 

 to the North Pacific motheiship fleets and 18, 333.0 tons 

 to the Hokkaido land-based fleet. 



