estimate of the value of these collections; ■ The study of a group of 

 Crustacea (the Stomatopods) which is the subject of a paper before this 

 Congress is, however, indicative of their interest. 



!i - 



Fishing Technology 



In addition to an aquarium and museum open to the public the 

 Oceanographic Institute of Indo-China has an office dealing with 

 information relating to fishing, in connection • with the studies of a 

 technological laborator}-. 



This office, established in 1938, assumed during the period 1940-1945 

 so great an importance, owing to the economic situation, that from 1943 

 to 1945 it engaged all the activities of the laboratory, which lost all 

 scientific character. Resuming its proper role, it is particularly con- 

 cerned with the study of fishing problems, in relation to the biology of 

 seasonal migrating species (increase in production), and to those 

 techniques which may bring about better utilization of the products of 

 the fishing industry. It plays the part of technical adviser to the various 

 Governments associated in the Indo-China Union on maritime fishing 

 questions. 



OCEANOGRAPHY OF JAPAN SINCE 1939 



By Koji HiDAKA, Tokyo 



Introduction 



Activities of physical oceanography in Japan. were largely curtailed by 

 the World War II, especially .at the close of the Pacific theatre. It can 

 be said, therefore, that the ten years from the Sixth Pacific Science 

 Congress to the Seventh is the period in which we made little progress 

 in this branch of science. A summary of the official and personal 

 activities in \'arious institutions and agencies is now reviewed. 



Activities in the Hydrographic Office, Tokyo 



In the Hydrographic Office, Tokyo, 103 hydrographic expeditions 

 have been carried out from 1939 up to present in the Kuroshio region, 

 Oyashio area, Equatorial Pacific, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, South 

 China Sea, Okhotsk Sea, Bering Sea, Japan Sea, and other areas. 

 Observations of tidal cuiTents for periods of thirty days have been made 

 at more than ten stations in bays and the Inland Sea. Temporary tidal 

 observations were also made at nine coastal stations. After the end of 

 the war this office was directed by Dr. Kwanji Suda, a physical ocean- 

 ographer. The surveying vessels now in use are M.S. " Kaiyo No. 4," 

 " Kai3^o No. 5," and " Tenkai No. 1." 



In 1940, Dr. S. Kishindo discussed the deep-sea temperatures and 

 abyssal water movement in the Pacific Ocean, using the deep-sea obser- 

 vations of the " Komahashi," which he directed as captain, and of 

 other surveying ships. He made a vertical section of the Pacific, 

 showing the distribution of temperature, salinity and oxygen, extending 

 from the Bering Sea to the Antarctic Continent, use being made of all the 

 available data of " Carnegie," " Dana," and " Discovery II," as well 

 as of the Japanese surveying ships for the southern hemisphere. 



In the same year S. Kuwahara published a table of corrections on 

 the densit}' of sea-water for the sonic depths. He also reported on sonic 

 sounding in 1943. 



195 



