SIXTEENTH ANNUAL iVIEElTNG. 



THE FISHERIES OF JAPAN. 



liV K. ITO. 



Gentlemen : My intention in being present at this meeting is 

 simply to benefit myself by gathering the crumbs that fall from 

 your table, and not to benefit you by any talk, as I am not pre- 

 pared to make any remarks; but at the same time I am very 

 much interested in this society. I have heard and read so much 

 about it while in my own country that it gives me great pleasure 

 to be able to be present at this meeting, m3' great interest in 

 which has prompted me to make the bold attempt of addressing 

 y(ju in a tongue with which I am not familiar. 



Fish constitutes the chief article of food in Japan, and the 

 fishing industries are necessarily the most important pursuit of 

 the Japanese. It gives employment to 1,654,178 men, and yields 

 $35,000,000. The peculiar features of the country afford every 

 kind of fishing, and a great many varieties of the marine animals 

 and plants are collected and utilized. It is not possible, how- 

 eyer, without some previous preparation, for me to enumerate 

 them or to give any account of the methods used for catching 

 and curing them. I will, therefore, limit my subject to the fish- 

 eries of Northern Japan, or Hokkaido, with which I am more 

 familiar. Hokkaido, more familiarly known to you under the 

 name of Yesso, is one of the islands constituting the Japanese 

 Empire, and is situated between 40 deg. 21 min. and 45 deg. 30 

 min. north latitude. It covers an area of about 319,000 square 

 miles. The fisheries industry is the oldest and most important 

 of the island. I will give a brief, description of some of the 

 principal fisheries of the Hokkaido. 



First in the order of importance are the spring herring fisher- 

 ies. The spring herring {Clupea harengus) approaches the western 

 coast of the island in tremendous groups in the spring and early 

 summer, and fisliing is carried on from the first part of April to 

 the last of June. The implements used for the capture of this 

 fish are of two kinds — the gill-net and the moored trap-net. 



