704 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



FISHERY METHODS 



In Japanese waters salmon are taken by means of trap nets, haul 

 seines, and gill nets. 



The haul seines used along the seashore have a length of about 500 

 fathoms. Each is carried by a boat of 9 feet beam with 30 men, and 

 the right wing, called the "outing wing," is first paid out as the boat 

 heads out from the beach. When the pocket, or bunt, is cast the 

 boat turns its course toward the right and steers gradually landward, 

 casting the left wing. When the school is encircled the seine is hauled 

 ashore by the seme ropes. 



The floating trap net used for salmon is known as "kaku-ami," or 

 square trap net. This consists of a main net and lead. The main net, 

 or heart, is 70 fathoms long, 10 fathoms wide, and 10 fathoms deep, 

 and the lead is 120 fathoms long. The latter guides the fish toward 

 the main net. When being fished the pot is hauled up by a boat 

 crew and the fish transferred to the boat by means of a dip net. 



FISH CULTURE 



The artificial culture of salmon is carried on in 56 hatcheries, which 

 are distributed in -Hokkaido and the prefectures of Aomori, Akita, 

 Yamagata, Niigata, To^^ama, Kyoto, Iwate, and Miyagi. Nine of 

 these belong to the government of Hokkaido and other prefectures, 

 while the rest are owned by fishing associations, individuals, or corpo- 

 rations. The number of young salmon distributed by these hatch- 

 eries amounts to over 80,000,000 a 3^ear. 



The largest hatchery is the one at Chitose, imder the supervision of 

 the Hokkaido Fishery Experimental Station. It was established in 

 1887, and it is estimated that the fish distributed by it number from 

 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 yearly. 



The salmon hatchery of Murakami, Niigata prefecture, dates as 

 far back as 1881, when a regulation pertaining to the preservation of 

 j^oung salmon in the River Miomote was enacted by the prefecture 

 of Niigata. This was first called the "Murakami Salmon Raising 

 Plant," but in 1891 it was turned into a hatchery, and is now dis- 

 tributing 2,000,000 young salmon a year. The salmon hatchery of 

 Nitta River, Fukushima prefecture, is very similar in its history and 

 organization to the above. 



The industry has during the last few years become very popular in 

 Yamagata prefecture, where 22 hatcheries are in operation as private 

 enterprises. 



In the prefectures of Shiga, Miye, Shizuoka, Nagano, Yamanashi, 

 Kanagawa, Akita, Niigata, Hyogo, Miyazaki, and Hokkaido, the 

 masu {0. masou) and the landlocked hime-masu (0. nerka) are raised 

 and distributed in the lakes and rivers. There are eight hatcheries 

 \Norking on these species. The hatchery of Lake Towada, Akita 

 prefecture, first transplanted hime-masu from Hokkaido in 1902, 

 and it is now hatching from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 eggs a year for 

 the purpose of distributing the fish among the different districts. 



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