I FISHING yAREAS, RESOURCES AND SEASONS 
Fishing Areas 
Along the eastern coast of Asia from Bering Sea on the north 
almost to Australia on the south is one of the world's richest fishing 
regions. In this vast area of the Pacific extending through 65° of 
latitude and east as far as the 180th meridian the Japanese cariy on 
their fishing operations. Other people bordering these waters fish 
their local grounds but none have spread their operations far afield as 
have the Japanese. 
Within this western Pacific fishing area, the Japanese operations 
are most intensively developed in the coastal waters of Japan proper, in 
the Pacific inmediately east of the main islands, in the Yellow Sea and 
the East China Sea, along the Japan Sea coasts of Korea and Karafuto, and 
around the margins of the Sea of Okhotsk (Figure l). Of secondary impor¬ 
tance are the tropical waters of the Pacific Mandated Islands and Indo¬ 
nesia and the cold waters of Bering Sea. Outside the western Pacific 
area Japanese carry on Antarctic whaling and have also operated fishing 
vessels off the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, Mexico, Central 
America and South America of the Western Hemisphere and also in Indian 
waters of the Far East. 
In the areas described above a6 those in which Japanese fisheries 
are most intensively developed the natural conditions of water depths 
and ocean currents are favorable to marine life. Except for the Japan 
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