38 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



FISHERIES 



Fishing is carried on throughout Siberia. This industry developed 

 mainly on the northern and northeastern coasts, where grain raising 

 is impossible. In the agricultural districts fishing is of secondary 

 importance, conducted mainly to supply the local demand for fish. 



The fishing regions are located in places where the population is 

 scarce and the people ignorant. During the fishing seasons the num- 

 ber of the native population is swelled by outside fishermen, whose 

 only aim is to catch as much fish as possible. This leads to destruc- 

 tive methods of fishing, because it makes no provision whatsoever for 

 a future fish supply. The result has been an appreciable decline in 

 the number of fish recently caught. 



A few years before the World War the number of fishermen was 

 on the increase. The catch of fish also increased, but this state of 

 affairs only accelerated the process of exhausting the fishing grounds 

 in spite of Government measures directed toward the preservation 

 of fish supplies. The Government introduced stricter fishing regu- 

 lations, forbidding fishing altogether in certain waters, established 

 hatcheries, and also compelled the fishermen to maintain hatcheries. 

 Fish are caught by nets, by a special kind of hedge made of poles 

 with a trap arrangement ("zayesdka"), built across rivers, and by 

 hooks suspended from stationary lines. These methods are waste- 

 ful, as many young fish are caught that never are returned to the 

 waters and therefore perish, while the hooks often wound fish, which 

 also perish. 



The preparation of Siberian fish was very primitive. They were 

 carelessly cleaned, not well salted, packed in dirty barrels, and there- 

 fore constituted a product of inferior quality. When modern methods 

 were used, the quality was equal to the best product of any other 

 country. 



The canning industry was very little developed, virtually the 

 only fish utilized being the salmon. Ninety per cent of the canning 

 industry was in the hands of Japanese. The canning plants, which 

 were maintained in accordance with American standards and their 

 output shipped to England, were mostly located in the Kamchatka 

 Peninsula. The fish refuse was used for the preparation of fertilizer. 

 In 1913 the total output of canned salmon was 6,600,000 pounds, of 

 which plants in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur produced 100,000 pounds. In 

 1920 the pack of the principal Japanese firms amounted to 28,800,000 

 pounds, and of the Russian firms 9,600,000 pounds. 



Eussian fishermen were handicapped by lack of harbors, inade- 

 quate and expensive transportation, lack of capital and financing 

 facilities, lack of labor, especially of experienced workmen, lack of 

 good salt, and lack of proper marketing facilities and methods. 

 These difficulties were aggravated by the method of leasing the 

 fishing grounds. These grounds, with very few exceptions, be- 

 longed to the State, and new fishing stations were leased for a short 

 period only — from one to three years. Thus it was only after a long 

 period of time that any idea could be gained as to the productiveness 

 of a given station, and therefore as to its value, when leased for a 

 longer period. This made the fishing industry a very speculative 

 affair. Fishermen had no inducement to make an investment for 

 short periods. In a poor year, when the run of fish was small, the 



