JANUARY 

 General 



The distribution of the fishing grounds is in basic agreennent with 

 the December pattern. If we except the South Seas area, where the alba- 

 core schools already show signs of a decline, all fishing grounds show an 

 increase in the density of albacore occurrence as compared with Dec ennber. 

 This is particularly outstanding in the case of the albacore schools of the 

 Kinan Sea Area, where the catch rates make a sudden jump in January 

 and make this one of the most innportant albacore grounds. The density 

 of the albacore also increases in the sea areas of the middle latitudes 

 and in the Okinotorishima fishing ground, where along with the expansion 

 of the area of the grounds the catch rates rise higher than their December 

 levels, producing the peak season in this area. Elsewhere albacore also 

 begin to appear even in comparatively enclosed waters, and areas with 

 fairly high albacore catch rates are seen from west of the Bashi Strait 

 to the central part of the South China Sea. Some albacore also cross to 

 the west of the line of the Okinawa archipelago and appear in the East 

 China Sea. 



Grounds North of the Subtropical Convergence 

 (1) North Pacific Ground 



In general, the points of difference with December are as follows: 



o o 



1. The southern edge of the fishing ground is about I to 2 



farther south than in January /Translator's note: probably a misprint 

 for December/. 



2. The northern edge of the fishing ground has shifted 2 to 3 

 south from its December position. Because the southward movement of 

 the northern edge of the ground is faster than that of the southern edge, 

 it looks as if the ground, as compared with December, has been pushed 

 somewhat to the southward and its north-south extent somewhat narrowed. 



3. The western extremity of the ground is connpletely in con- 

 tact with the line of the Izu and Ogasawara archipelagoes. 



4. The position of the internnediate zone has been pushed con- 

 siderably to the westward, as compared with its position in December 

 and earlier, and there appears to be a portion of the area of low catch 

 rates between 145 E. and 150 E. However, in general this is not very 

 clear, 



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