PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES 



703 



Some yea/s earlier, however, about 1892 or 1893, Fujino Shirobei 

 started canneries in Shibetsu and Bekkai, Neniiiro Province, Hok- 

 ushii Isbmd, and a short time later Idziimi Shozo also started a 

 plant at Nemiiro. For a number of years these three canneries were 

 the only producers. The plants were quite primitive, the product 

 small, and most of it was consumed by the Japanese navy. A 

 demand for the product was gradually worked up, however, and as 

 a result there are now^ a number of small canning plants on Hokushu 

 Island proper, the Kuril Islands, and Japanese Sakhalin. Most of 

 these plants devote the major part of their energies to the packing 

 of crab meat, the canning of salmon being in most cases a side issue. 

 A few of the plants have been equipped with machinery, but the 

 large majority are hand-pack plants, employing but a few persons. 



Most of these plants pack what is called "white trout," which is 

 really the humpback or masu salmon. In 1912 there were in Hok- 

 ushu and adjacent islands 21 canneries which packed 730 cases (48 

 one-pound fiat cans each) of red {0. nerka) and 72,770 cases (48 

 one-pound cans each) of "w^hite trout," a total of 73,500 cases. 



On the Japanese portion of Sakhalin Island 4 canneries packed 

 10,120 cases (48 one-pound cans each) of "white trout" in 1912. 



The pack of canned salmon in Japanese territory in recent years 

 has been as follows: 



' Composed of 2,500 cases of 1-pound flat red salmon and 66,000 cases of 1-pound flat chum salmon. 

 ■' No figures given from 1921 to 1923, inclusive. 



3 Includes 156,100 cases of humpback salmon brought to Aomori from Siberia in refrigerator vessels and 

 then canned. 



The following table show^s the quantities and value of salmon and 

 trout taken by the Japanese fishermen in certain years: 



