FISHING IN THE PRIAMUR DISTRICT OF SIBERIA. 
By Joun K. Catpwett, American Consul at Vladivostok, Siberia. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Fishing is probably the most important industry in the Russian Far 
East. It is the only industry in the district which not only attempts 
to supply the local market but exports to the European Russian and 
foreign markets. 
The fishing industry is entirely under the control of the Russian 
Government and is a State property, with the exception of a few 
fishing stations belonging to the city of Nikolaievsk on the Amur, 
which are run by the municipality of that city, and also a few places 
on the seacoast and in the rivers, donated to local tribes of abo- 
rigines. 
In the Maritime, Kamchatka, and Amur Provinces fishing is 
controlled by the Khabarovsk office of the Department of Domains. 
Administratively the waters are divided into two classes: (1) Waters 
allotted exclusively to Russian subjects, and (2) waters open to 
Japanese fishermen by virtue of the Russo-Japanese Fishing Conven- 
tion of 1907. The first class comprises rivers and their estuaries, lakes, 
gulfs, bays, and harbors; the waters opened to foreign fishing com- 
prise chiefly open seacoasts. Up to the present no foreigners other 
than Japanese have made any attempt to obtain such fishing rights. 
Very little is known as yet as to the value of the fishing places, for 
practically no study has been made of the Priamur waters. The 
works of Braginoff and Soldatoff, ichthyologists attached to the 
Khabarovsk office of the Department of Domains, merely pave the 
way for a more extensive study. Some practical knowledge of the 
value of certain fishing places exists, undoubtedly, among private 
fishermen, principally Japanese, but it is not general knowledge. 
Therefore the Department of Domains has no way of exploiting vari- 
ous fishing stations other than by allotting them to the highest bidder 
at public sale, and even then being very careful to allot them first for 
a very short period—from one to three years. After a strict watch 
a The investigation on which this report is based was requested by the Bureau of Fisheries. Itis now 
published because of the value of the information to American fishing interests, particularly those of the 
Pacific coast. 5 
