July 1966 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



83 



Japan (Contd.): 



a view contravenes freedom of the high seas. 

 Japan holds that the Japan-U. S. -Canada fish- 

 eries treaty, which is based on such exclu- 

 sivism, is a "bad law" rare throughout the 

 world. Also the officials of the Fisheries Re- 

 search Institute of the Agriculture -Forestry 

 Ministry emphasize that "the American salm- 

 on resources still leave considerable room 

 for further exploitation, in view of the scale 

 of American and Canadian coastal fisheries." 



All Japanese circles concerned hold un- 

 animously that the only outlet from the pres- 

 ent deadlock of northern Pacific fisheries, 

 especially salmon, is the revision of the Ja- 

 pan-U. S. -Canada fisheries treaty in favor of 

 the release of the northeastern Pacific fish- 

 ing grounds as a new "frontier" for salmon 

 fisheries. It is not permissible, of course, 

 for Japan to catch at random the salm.onfrom 

 Bristol Bay where the United States and Can- 

 ada have been attempting conservation of re- 

 sources over a long period. If reasonable 

 and appropriate catches, however, are per- 

 mitted to Japan, the blow to be dealt the Ja- 

 panese by the decrease inAsian salmon catches 

 due to the Japan-Soviet fisheries treaty will 

 be minimized. ( Nihon Keizai , April 15, 1966.) 



:{c :i: :^ j!« 5j: 



FISH MEAL PRODUCTION FROM 

 SOVIET-CAUGHT ALASKA POLLOCK: 



The 14,000 -ton Japanese fish meal facto- 

 ryship Hoyo Maru returned to Yokohama 

 March 29, 1966. The factoryship operated in 

 the Okhotsk Sea, beginning in mid -January, 

 buying Alaska pollock from Soviet trawlers 

 for processing into fish nieal and oil. She 

 purchased 47,500 metric tons of Alaska pol- 

 lock and produced 7,752 metric tons of meal, 

 495 tons of oil, and 1,120 tons of fish solu- 

 bles. (Suisancho Nippo, Mar ch 30, 1966.) 



Note: See Commercial Fisheries Review, March 1966 p. 58. 

 5l< ;!; ^ 5[£ =[; 



NORTH PACIFIC WHALING 

 REGULATIONS FOR 1966 ISSUED: 



The Japanese Fisheries Agency on April 

 28 announced these whaling regulations for 

 the Fifteenth (1966) North Pacific Whaling 

 Expedition: 



1. Number of whaling fleets to be author- 

 ized: 3 (to be operated by the same firms 

 which participated in the 1965 operations). 



2. Catch limit: 



a. Whalebone whales--l,001 blue- 

 whale units (same as actual production in 

 1965). For fin whales, the season's limit 

 will be 1,265 whales. This represents avol- 

 untary reduction of 10 percent from the 1965 

 production of 1,406 whales. Action taken in 

 view of need to protect species. Ban on the 

 harvesting of blue whales and humpback 

 whales will continue as before. No catch re- 

 striction will be imposed on catch of sei 

 whales since stock assessment indicates no 

 need to regulate harvest of that species. 



b. Sperm whales--3, 000 whales. This 

 represents an increase of 540 whales over 

 the 1965 catch of 2,460 whales. The decision 

 to increase the limit was based on the fact 

 that the Soviets in 1965 harvested about 8,100 

 sperm whales, indicating that the stock is not 

 in a poor condition. 



3. Assignment of catcher vessels : In 1965 

 one fleet (which was granted an increase in 

 catch quota of 200 blue-whale units) was li- 

 censed to operate with 11 catcher vessels, 

 while the other twofleets were each restricted 

 to 7 catcher vessels. There will be no restric- 

 tions placed on those two fleets this year. 



4. Allocation of whale quota: The catch 

 quota for whalebone whales will be allocated 

 to the 3 whaling fleets: 



Whaling Fleet 



Catch Quota 

 (Blue -Whale Unitsl 



Kvokuvo Maruo • . ■ « • . • . • 



467 

 267 

 267 



Nisshin Maru No, 3 



liidiiei Maru 



The Kyokuyo Maru fleet receives the ad- 

 ditional quota of 200 whales as in 1965. 



The fin whale quota will be divided equally 

 among the 3 firms operating the 3 fleets at 

 the rate of 421 whales per fleet. The sperm 

 whale quota will be allocated on the basis of 

 1,000 whales per fleet. 



Fig. 1 - Japanese whale factoryship in Bering Sea. Note stem 

 ramp for taking whale aboard. 



