TABLE 37 
Japanese Coastal Whaling Operations, 1938 
Company Number of Vessels Number of 
Nippon Suisan K. K. 
19 
24 
Hayashikane and Co. Ltd. 
4 
8 
Ayukawa Whaling Co. 
1 
3 
Enyi Whaling Co. 
1 
25 
4 
3? 
Source: Japan Fisheries Industry, 1939 (Special issue of Japan 
Times and Mail, 1939). 
bJ The number of bases listed is rather misleading because 11 of them 
were used by two companies, so that the number of separate bases is 
only 28. Of these 17 were in Japan proper; 5 in the Kuriles; 4 in 
Korea; and one each in Formosa and Kwantung. The International Whaling 
Statistics r eport only 21 bases for this year (Table 34). 
Sea Otters and Fur Seals . Sea otters and fur seals are 
marine animals of the North Pacific valuable for their fur. Normally the 
Japanese took a small annual catch of each. 
Sea otters occur in the Kurile Islands as well 
as in certain areas of Soviet and American territory. 54/ They are coastal 
in habit and occur in small groups, in contrast to fur seals which have 
a large cruising radius and at breeding periods gather in large herds. 
The Japanese resources, estimated at about 2,500 animals, are considerably 
larger than that of Russia or the United States and are protected by law 
(Sea Otter Protection Law of 1911). The number of animals caught and killed 
each year, regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, was 
limited according to a policy of conservation and propagation. The a.nrmA.1 
slaughter was reported as about one hundred animals. 55 / 
54/ They frequent Soviet areas of Kamchatka and the Commander Islands and 
American territory of the Aleutians and Alaska. 
55/ Japan’s Fisheries I ndustry 1939 (Special issue of Japan Times and 
Mail, 1939). 
16~0 31 Pl4o bu 
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