the Indian Oceano It is said that the northern limit of its 

 diistriTDution in Japanese waters is in the vicinity of 42° No 

 Attempts have been made to gather various data^ but since in 

 Japan the striped marlinj the black marlinj and the white marlin 

 are seldom carefully distinguished and all three species are in 

 many cases reported together as striped marlin or simply as 

 marlinj, the distribution and migratory pattern of each species 

 is not very clearo In Japanese waters the area extending from 

 southwest of Kyushu" to the Tsushima Strait, the Kinan Sea Area, 

 and waters off the Izu and Boso peninsulas 9 and the coastal 

 waters of the Izu and Ogasawara islands are noted as fishing 

 grounds for the spearfisheso Farther south these fish are 

 taken throughout the yearo 



The waters east of Formosa and the South China Sea are 

 areas in which the spearfishes aro very abundanto From prewar 

 statistics it appears that there was no great difference between 

 the number of fish tsJcen in Formosa and the total catch from all 

 of Japan propero 



The fishing season in the seas east of Formosa is the 

 season of the northeast monsoous that is, from October to Aprilo 

 The fishing grounds are generally within 30 miles of the coast, 

 and as one goes farther out to sea the density of distribution 

 decreasesc The fishing carried on in these waters is chiefly 

 the harpoon fisheryo The longline fishery is also prosecuted 

 vigorously in this area^ but its main objective is numerous 

 species of sharko In the catch from the harpoon fishery the 

 white marlin is very numerous at the beginning of the season, 

 while the striped marlin increases during the middle part of 

 the season, and the black marlin gradually become more numerous 

 toward the end of the seasono If we calculate only the pro- 

 portions of tunas and spearfishes in the longline catch, the 

 tunas make up 60 ■= 65 percent and the spearfishes 35 - 40 per=' 

 cent of the whole^ Such a high ratio of spearfishes is not 

 seen anywhere else north of the central part of the East 

 Philippine Sea except at certain seasonso 



The pattern of distribution and migration in the South 

 China Sea area seems to differ considerably from that of the 

 Kuroshio region„ The main fishing season is still the northeast 

 monsoon and the white marlin generally predominates in the early 

 part of the season^ but the catch also includes a considerable 

 iiumber of black marlin, which are extremely rare in the Kuroshio 

 at this timoo The composition of the spearfish catch from the 

 middle of the season on does not differ greatly from that of 

 the Kuroshio areao Quite a few fish are taken after the season 

 has ended in the Kuroshio j, and from July to September white 

 marlin occur in considerable abundance in the northwestern part 

 of this sea areao Considered generally^, the schools are most 

 abundant at the beginning of the season in the southeastern 



47 



