October 1966 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



45 



PURSE -SEINES TUNA 

 IN EASTERN ATLANTIC 



The 90 -gross -ton tuna purse seiner Hakuryu 

 Maru found good fishing. One of two vessels 

 contracted this year by a Japanese firm to 

 fish the eastern Atlantic Ocean, she began in 

 late June. As of July 20, she had landed 140 

 metric tons --skipjack and yellowfin in about 

 equal quantities. 



The second purse seiner, Seisho Maru No . 

 10, 90 gross tons, has not fared well due to 

 propeller trouble from the outset. Her catch 

 during the same period was only 80 tons, 

 mostly small yellowfin. 



The Kuroshio Maru No. ^, 145 gross tons, 

 assigned to the company's Chichibu Maru 

 mothership fleet, was reported to have landed 

 23 tons of tuna in about a week's operation in 

 the eastern Atlantic. ( Katsuo - maguro Tsu - 

 shin .) 



:^ :^ 3}; :>}: ?^ 



CANNED TUNA EXPORTS 



TO WEST GERMANY DECLINE 



Exports of canned tuna in oil to West Ger- 

 many- -its largest export market for this-- 

 declined drastically at midyear. Tight money 

 and high interest rates in West Germany were 

 blamed. As a result. West German buyers 

 are said to be offering very low prices for 

 Japanese canned tuna products, and this has 

 largely depressed sales to that country. 



From April 1965-March 1966, exports of 

 tuna in oil totaled 765,564 actual cases, equal 

 to 41 percent of total exports to all countries 

 excluding the United States. 



The export price of Japanese canned skip- 

 jack in oil dropped to US$7.50 per case c.i.f., 

 declining over $1 a case since spring 1966. 

 Exports to West Germany of a specialty-pack 

 tuna (described as "dressing tuna") also de- 

 clined, but the decline was attributed to the 

 refusal of Japanese packers to reduce the 

 relatively high price of that product com- 

 pared with oil-packed tuna. ( Suisan Tsushin , 

 and other sources.) 



TRANSSHIP SHRIMP FROM 

 COMMUNIST CHINA 



The Japanese trade intends to use a new 

 method for intransit trade in spring shrimp 

 imported from Communist China. It will pre- 

 vent waste of foreign currency and not disturb 

 the domestic market where local shrimp is 

 oversupplied. The shrimp will be held in 

 bond and transshipped without formally enter- 

 ing Japan. It is planned to transship from 

 Kobe to Great Britain 75 tons of spring shrimp 

 in this way, and an additional 25 tons will be 

 transshipped to Rotterdam. (Fisheries Attache, 

 United States Embassy, Tokyo, from Suisan 

 Keizai .) 



***** 

 MAJOR FIRMS LOOK FOR NEW GROUNDS 



Large Japanese fishery companies are 

 trying to develop new fishing grounds to com- 

 pensate for restrictions by many nations of 

 fishing off their coasts. This search for new 

 grounds will intensify. 



The Government's Fishery Agency is re- 

 ported considering construction of a large fish- 

 ery survey vessel to assist the fishery indus- 

 try in discovering and exploiting new grounds. 



Before, companies looked for new grounds 

 during "spare time" in normal operations. 

 Today, they are systematizing such experi- 

 mental fishing operations. These operations 

 are becoming more costly in dwindling re- 

 sources of established grounds and more 

 urgent as national prohibitions increase. 



One large company is centralizing plans 

 for exploration. In the past, exploration was 

 conducted individually by its fishing sections. 

 It is also en^phasizing development of tech- 

 niques for improving trawl fishing, fishing 

 for bonito, tuna, mackerel, and land-based 

 whaling in still-undeveloped fishing grounds. 

 It has started to improve deep-sea trawling. 

 It hopes to advance into drag-net fishing for 

 herring and cod in the North Atlantic. 



A second company is promoting deep-sea 

 trawling with 3,000- to 3, 500-gross -ton trawl- 

 ing vessels. It is constructing a 550-gross- 

 ton survey vessel primarily for developing 

 new grounds in the North Pacific. The com- 

 pany now has two drag-net vessels conducting 



