Vessels of less than 5 tons, which do 

 not require fishing licenses, are narked on 

 their bows with a vertical band of red paint 

 about 6 inches wide, which indicates their 

 classification. These vessels usually have 

 a complement of 6 men. 



Because they are small, these vessels 

 fish in areas close to shore, most of them 

 making overnight trips only and landing 

 their catch fresh. When good weather pre- 

 vails they sometimes remain out for 2 days. 

 The fishing period of these vessels is 

 limited to the months of May and June, when 

 fish are available close inshore. 



Vessels of more than 5 tons but less 

 thsin 30 require licenses from the Governor 

 of Hokkaido. Their complements range from 

 5 to 15 men. 



Vessels greater than 30 tons but less 

 than 75 require licenses from the Minister 

 of Agriculture and Forestry. The crews 

 range from 13 to 20 men. These vessels 

 remain on the fishing grounds for as long 

 as 3 weeks, bringing in their catch salted. 



Table 1 shows the crew composition of 

 the different size vessels, as well as the 

 number of "tans" (shackles) of gear set by 

 these vessels. 



Table 1. — Crew composition and average 

 number of "tans" of gear set by com- 

 mercial vessels of different sizes. 



FISHING GEAR 



Three types of gear used in the fish- 

 ery are gill nets, longlines, and traps. 

 As the traps take few salmon in this fish- 

 ery, only the gill nets and longlines will 

 be described in this paper. 



The gill nets fished by the catcher 

 boats of the mothership fishery have been 

 described by Fukuhara (1955). In the 

 eastern Hokkaido salmon fishery, shorter 

 gill nets are used but the trend has been 

 toward the adoption of longer shackles, 

 like those used in the mothership fishery. 



Three different lengths of shackles 

 are used, 200, 250, and 300 feet, with 3.8 

 "sun" (4,53 inches stretched measure) and 

 4,0 "sun" (4,77 inches stretched measure) 

 mesh sizes most commonly fished. The 200- 

 to 250-foot shackles are hung 50 meshes 

 deep, with light buoys attached every 10 

 shackles. The 300-foot shackles are hung 

 60 meshes deep. 



The nets are mainly nylon (Amilan), 

 Spongex-type floats have largely replaced 

 wooden floats, although wooden floats are 

 still used. 



The gear is usually set in the after- 

 noon around 4 p,m, and retrieved at mid- 

 night. The setting normally takes an hour, 

 and hauling requires 5 to 6 hours for the 

 Ijirger sets. 



At the end of the fishing season, 

 many vessels consign their nets to net- 

 mending companies to be mended and stored 

 until the start of a new season. The nets 

 are stripped completely and each component 

 CEirefully examined, repaired if necessary, 

 and then rehung. Women do most of this 

 work, 



Longlines are used by many vessels. 

 The unit of gear of the longline is the 

 "hachi" (skate). A hachi is usually from 

 300 to 400 feet long, containing 49 to 60 

 hooks attached at intervals of approximate- 

 ly 7.5 feet. The main line (float line) 

 is of heavy manila twine, and the leaders 

 are of nylon. 



Each hachi is coiled sepeirately in a 

 flat circular bamboo basket; the hooks are 

 lightly embedded on the edges and arranged 

 in a manner to prevent entanglement. For 

 bait the fishermen most commonly use light- 

 ly salted anchovies ( Engraulis sp,) and 

 occasionally sand eels ( Ammodytes sp,). 



An average set consists of 120 to 150 

 hachi. At time of setting, wooden floats 

 are tied every 5 hooks apart and light 

 buoys every 10 hachi. When sea conditions 



