July 1966 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



75 



Japan (Contd.): 



c. The overseas -based tuna fleet to be in- 



creased by a total of 112 vessels, and 

 overseas -based vessels to be allowed to 

 transship their catches on the high seas, 

 thereby increasing efficiency. 



d. To promote export trade, loans to trading 



firms to be administered on a sound ba- 

 sis, excessive inter -firm competition 

 eliminated, and an export sales system 

 firmly established. 



B. Fleet Modernization (Organization) Target for 

 1971 



1. Target (No. of Vessels): 



Tuna long -line vessels 



Skipjack pole-and-line vessels .... 

 Portable -boat carrying motherships . . 

 Seasonal tuna vessels 



581 



374 

 88 (76, 000 gross tons) 

 90( 8,000 " " 1 



Total 



1,133 



2. Area of Operation: 





Dcean 



Types of 



Vessels 



Lonq-linel/ 



Pole-and-line 



Atlantic .... 



Indian 



'acific 



130 ( 43) 

 160 (100) 

 469 (180) 



30 

 10 



334 



Total .... 



759 (323) 



374 



l/Figures in ( ) give number of vessels 

 seas bases. 



operating out of over- 



( Suisancho Nippo , March 24, 1966.) 

 ***** 



REPORT ON GOVERNMENT -INDUSTRY 



TU NA SYMPOSIUM: 



The 1966 Japanese Government-industry 

 symposium on the tuna fishery, sponsored by 

 the Japan Scientific Fisheries Council and 

 supported by the Japan Federation of Tuna 

 Fishermen's i_ssociations (NIKKATSUREN), 

 was held in Tokyo, April 5-6, 1966. The sym- 

 posium, chaired by the Director, Nankai Re- 

 gional Fisheries Research Laboratory, fea- 

 tured discussions on scientific papers on tuna 

 resources, fishing grounds, and gear and 

 fishing methods, contributed by Government 

 and industry fishery researchers. 



The initial discussion centered on the re- 

 source problem. Industry asked what type of 

 gear --long -line, purse seine, or pole and 

 line --would be better from the standpoint of 

 maintaining the resources. A researcher 

 from the Nankai Laboratory replied that from 

 the viewpoint of resources, a gear which cap- 

 tures young fish was not desirable. 



NIKKATSUREN's managing director asked 

 if Japanese research and investigation have 



made any progress on the pending question 

 of whether the eastern Pacific yellowfin be- 

 longed to an independent population separate 

 from the yellowfin fished by the Japanese in 

 the western Pacific. Noting the need for bio- 

 logical data at future international meetings, 

 he also asked what kind of studies, including 

 length frequency and serological studies, 

 have been made on this species. Referring 

 to reports on the declining hook rate in the 

 Atlantic Ocean, he urged that Japanese sci- 

 entists assemble detailed catch data since 

 Japan will likely be placed under great 

 pressure should the time come when the 

 Atlantic tuna resources come under close 

 scrutiny. 



The discussion then turned to fishing 

 grounds. Industry asked for detailed data on 

 tuna resources in waters south of Australia 

 and also inquired whether there was any pos- 

 sibility of developing new tuna -fishing grounds . 

 Professor Uda introduced research data on 

 tuna resources in southern Australian waters 

 and Uemura (Nankai Laboratory) and Kawa- 

 saki (Tohoku Laboratory) explained that there 

 were virtually no new fishing grounds that 

 could support a tuna long-line fishery. It 

 was pointed out that even if new grounds were 

 developed, sustained working of those areas 

 could conceivably affect availability in exist- 

 ing grounds. This discussion brought out the 

 need to correlate the two factors. 



In discussing the possibility of developing 

 new skipjack fishing grounds, the scientists 

 felt that, since most of the Japanese skipjack 

 fishermen operate on a small scale, employ- 

 ing simple pole-and-line gear, there was 

 still much room for exploiting the widely 

 ranging skipjack, dense schools of which 

 are found off Japan, Marianas, Ceylon, Mad- 

 agascar, Hawaii, and in the eastern Pacific. 

 It was pointed out that reliance on the prim- 

 itive pole -and -line fishing gear, which catches 

 mainly 2-year-old fish and some 3-year olds, 

 should be restudied since 4- to 5 -year old 

 fish are believed to be available in fairly 

 great quantity and gear improvement could 

 substantially increase production. Profes- 

 sor Inouye of Tokai University explained 

 that exploratory cruises to the central south 

 Pacific indicated good possibilities of ex- 

 ploiting skipjack in waters off Truk, Mariana 

 and Marshall Islands. 



Concerning the tuna resources, Uemura 

 explained the expansion of Japanese tuna 

 long -line operations, in the past 10 years or 



