Kamchatka and Okhotsk Sea areas, the largest amounts are taken off the 
east coast of Kamchatka. The silver salmon (gin sake), ( Oncorhynchus 
klsutch ) Is caught in relatively small quantities, chiefly in the seas 
off Kamchatka. Salmon-trout (Salmo sp.) is a smaller fish taken chiefly 
in waters of Hokkaido and Karafuto; it is rare in Kamchatka and is absent 
in northern Honshu waters. Figure 3 shows the main areas of the composite 
salmon catch. 
Crab , especially the king crab (Taraba-gani), ( Paralithodes Cam - 
tschatica ). provides an important export product of the northern fisheries. 
The fishing grounds (shown in Figure 4) occur in the cold waters from 
Bering Sea to the northern end of the Japan Sea. Floating factories operat 
ing off the Kamchatka coast accounted for about half the 1938 catch; 
shore based operations in eastern Hokkaido, in Karafuto, the northern 
Kuriles and Kamchatka accounted for the rest. The most lucrative of all 
Japanese crab fishing areas is off the west coast of Kamchatka south of 
58°. 
The crab fishing season varies according to the area. In Hokkaido 
it starts the early part of April and ends in late June, reaching the 
peak between mid-April and early May. Along the east and west coasts 
of Karafuto operations are possible generally from the earlier part of 
March to the beginning of September; the fishing season in this region 
reaches its height between the latter part of March and April. The 
operating season for the floating canneries extends from the earlier 
34 
10-031 P56 
