< 



X 



o 



< 



o 



2 - 



I I I I r 



-o TOTAL 

 -a STRIPED 

 -a BLACK 



to the waters around the Izu 

 lalanda. Farther to the west 

 there are fishing grounds with 

 catch rates of over 1.0 about 

 300 miles south of Ashizuri 

 Misaki and northwest of the main 

 islajid of Okinawa, while fishing 

 is quite active all over the sea 

 area between them from Z7 to 

 28° N., 128° to 133° E. Fish- 

 ing is poor in the waters east 

 of Formosa. 



Compao'ed with the 

 albacore grounds centered 

 around 150 E. in Decennber, 

 there is generad agreenaent but 

 the western tip of the broadbill 

 grounds extends farther west 

 than do the albacore grounds. 

 At this season dense schools 

 of albacore believed to be of a 

 different stock appear south of 

 Shionomisaki, but there are no 

 broadbill there, although as pre- 

 viously stated fishing grounds 

 with dense concentrations appear 

 in the waters around Okinawa. 



In the chart for 



January (i) the fishing grounds 



have moved farther south and 



o 

 are centered along 151 E. , with 



the heart of the fishing grounds 

 in the area of 32° to 38 N. The 

 schools in the waters around the 

 Izu Islands are separated from 

 those which are broadly distribu- 

 ted to the eastward, and there 



o o 



appears to be a densely concentrated group of fish in the comparatively narrow area at 30 to 34 



N. , 134 to 137 E. Outstanding fishing grounds have disappeared from west of the Izu Islands, 

 with the sole exception of some aireas with rather high catch rates around the Miyako archipelago. 

 Area^ with catch rates of over 1.0 are to be seen in the vicinity of 29 to 50 N. , 161 to 162 E. , 

 but there are few data from that region so it is difficult to determine whether these are merely 

 fortuitous or actually good fishing grounds. 



At the same season the center of distribution for albacore is, with the exception of 

 the central part of the Pacific, at 29° to 33° N. , 143° to 148° E. Consequently it can be seen 

 that the center of distribution of the albacore is somewhat more to the south and west, however, 

 the albacore catch rates in the waters around the Izu Islands are not very high. The albacore 

 grounds in the Kinan sea area are greatly extended as compared with December. 



In the chart for February (J) the center of the fishing grounds has shifted even farther 

 to the southwest to the waters east of the line of the Izu and Ogasawara islands in the vicinity of 

 27° to 32° N. , 140° to 145° E. The grounds of particularly high catch rates are in waters close 



MONTH 

 STATIONS 



HOOKS 



Figure 37. — Spearfish fishing conditions by 

 months (25° to 30° N, , 120° to 

 130° E. ) 



164 



