Figure 5. — Women sorting salted salmon by species, lemoving excess salt and segregating damaged fish. 



PRINCIPAL PORTS OF lANDING AND 

 MARKETING PRACTICES 



The catches are landed mainly in four 

 major ports: Hanasaki (on the outskirts 

 of Nemuro), Kushiro, Akkeshi, and Hiroo 

 (sometimes referred to as Biroo). Of these 

 jjorts, Kushiro and Hauiasaki lead in land- 

 ings. Salmon are also Isuided in many of 

 the smaller towns and villaiges along the 

 coast, but such landings are restricted to 

 the catches of vessels of less than 5 tons, 

 which do not require licenses, and to trap- 

 caught fish. Vessels over 5 tons are re- 

 quired to land their catches at the four 

 ports mentioned above. 



At each of these ports, the salted 

 fish are sorted by species at time of land- 

 ing. Excess salt is removed from every 

 fish, and damaged fish are segregated (fig. 



5). The fish are then weighed and stacked 

 neatly in piles where they are excimined by 

 prospective buyers and brokers. 



The salted salmon are sold at auctions 

 which are held several times a day. The 

 bidding system is unique in that the auc- 

 tioneer will start with a high price and 

 gradually come down in price. Thus, the 

 buyer first to voice his intention of buy- 

 ing at the price quoted by the auctioneer 

 gets to purchase the lot. 



The salted fish are re-examined for 

 quality, sorted, and washed with fresh 

 water in large wooden vats to remove the 

 old salt completely. Fresh salt is ap- 

 plied and the fish are packed in wooden 

 boxes as "aramaki." Women do most of this 

 work. 



