PACIFIC COD FISHERIES 459 



All places infected, and all utensils, may be washed in a disinfecting solution 

 of 1 part sulphurous acid in 50 parts of water. 



A good whitewash should be applied as soon as the cleaning up has been 

 effected. 



Care should be exercised to keep the premises and utensils clean, all refuse 

 and offal should be frequently removed, and the floors scrubbed and washed 

 often. 



BROWN MOLD 



Brown mold, which forms brown, frecklelike spots on partly 

 dried fish, occurs but rarely on this coast. It occurs usually on old 

 fish, but may be found on comparatively fresh fish also. The fungus 

 affects both sides of the fish, even covering the fins and tail. When it 

 is found on comparatively fresh fish, they are scrubbed with a brush 

 in running water, after which they are powdered. But little atten- 

 tion is paid to this fungus by the packers. 



JAPAN AS A COMPETITOR 



For a number of years Japanese fishing vessels have been resorting 

 to the Asian cod banks, located in Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Japan 

 Sea, the waters of the Kurile Islands, and Hokaido, and the Yellow 

 Sea. Before our San Francisco fleet (in 1910) stopped going to the 

 Okhotsk Sea banks they reported seeing numerous Japanese schoon- 

 ers on those banks. 



Trawl lines are used on the near-by banks. A 200-fathom main 

 line, with 100 or more gangeons with hooks attached, makes a 

 "basket," and each boat carries 14 to 15 such baskets. The bait 

 used are herring, squid, flounder, salt sardines, and octopus, and the 

 fishing season is usually from January to April. 



The larger schooners — from 100 to 150 tons — operate mainly in 

 the waters around the Kurile Islands and in Okhotsk Sea, and the 

 vessels generally, as on the American side, leave the home port 

 during the early part of May and return the latter part of October. 

 Usually about 100 days are actually spent in fishing, the best period 

 being during July and August. Hand lines are used by the fisher- 

 men and these usually are fished in 90 or less fathoms, two hooks 

 being employed. Herring, mackerel, or codfish are used as bait. 



The Okhotsk Sea fishermen salt their fish in the hold as our fisher- 

 men do. However, two methods of dressing are followed. In one 

 the fish are split down the belly and the head is removed, as is the 

 custom with our fishermen, while in the other the fish are split 

 down the back, as is done by our mackerel fishermen, and the head 

 is left on. These are called by the Japanese " open cod." Those 

 split down the back are dried and packed in straw mats or in boxes 

 for export to China, where a considerable market has been developed 

 for them. The open cod, with head off, is usually put up during the 

 winter months and sold largely in Japan. 



Stockfish, or " stick cod," as it is known locally, is also prepared 

 in the same way as in Alaska. 



The home phases of the industry are centered largely in Hokkaido 

 and Sakhalin Island, or Karaf uto, as it is known in Japan. 



The Japanese at first gave their attention to the supplying of other 

 oriental markets with dry-salted cod and were measurably success- 



