CalCOFI Reports, Vol. 11, 1967 - California Cooperative Oceanic ...

130'E 132' 134' 136' 138' 140' 142- 144" I4I IJAPAN SEAREPORTS VOLUME XI, 1 JULY 1963 TO 30 JUNE 1966 45' 2hNortheastR:gionWest R q HOKKAIDO( 2' SouthRegion14' N12'IO*IS'of the nation's total. The landings in the Seto InlandSea, coastal waters swept by the Tusima Current andseas surrounding Hokkaido have comprised 20, 15and 5 percent of total, respectively."For the recent 5 years, up to 1962, total landings ofanchovies and sirasu, mostly postlarval anchovy,showed no further increase (Figure 2). The majorfishing grounds were still located in the Pacific watersand the Seto Inland Sea (Table 1).TAME 1REGIONAL CATCH OF ANCHOVY AND SIRASU IN JAPAN, 1962..^ LPACIFIC OCEANFIGURE 1. Division of the coast of Japan by Statistics and SurveyDivision, MAF.Division by Fisheries Agency is compared to that by Statistics andSurvey Division as follows:Fisheries AgencyStatistics and Survey DivisionHokkaido RegionTohoku RegionTokai RegionNankai RegionJapan Sea RegionSeikai RegionNaikai RegionNorth-East, South and West Regions ofHokkaidoNorth Pacific RegionMiddle Pacific RegionSouth Pacific RegionNorth and West Regions of Japon SeaEast China Sea RegionSet0 Inland Sea Regioncalled Nosyornu Tokai (renamed Norirt Tokai in 1925).Records of the anchovy catch, partly together withthe sardine and round herring, have been given since1905. On the basis of the catch statistics up to 1957,Hayasi (1961) summarized the fluctuations in amountof the anchovy catch as follows :"The history of fluctuation in the anchovy catch(in Japan) are distinguished into four groups ofyears; early increase from 1905 to 1912, succeedingyears of irregular fluctuation up to 1930, early partof the 1930's of decrease, and following years of increase.The early increase might be caused by rapiddevelopment of fisheries. For the later three periods,it is noted that the anchovy catch has fluctuated reverselywith the sardine catch. Investigation of publishedinformation indicates that the fluctuation inthe anchovy catch has depended mainly on change inthe population size rather than on change in speciespreference of fishermen, both of which might belargely due to the remarkable fluctuation in the sardinepopulation. The geographic distribution * of theanchovy catch has been consistent for the last halfcentury. The Pacific waters have produced 60 percentTwo systems are used to divide the coast of Japan, one by theFisheries Agency and the other by the Statistics and SurveyDivision of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. They areidentical to each other except for the names and subdivisionof the regions (Figure 1).16'14'12'Total ___________________Hokkaido ___________________North ____________Middle ___________South ____________Anchovy%349.5 (100.0 )1.5 ( 0.4 )38.3 ( 11.0 )107.1 ( 30.6 )36.4 ( 10.4 )Japan Sea. North .___________2.3 ( 0.7 ) 0.1 ( 0.2 )20.8 ( 6.0 ) 0.3 ( 1.2 )(West _ ____________East China Sea _ _____________Set0 Inland Sea _ _____________66.8 ( 19.1 )76.2 ( 21.8 )Sirasv%26.3 (100.0 )-- ( -- )2.7 ( 10.1 )10.5 ( 39.8 )4.6 ( 17.7 )1.2 ( 4.4 )7.0 ( 26.6 )Prospectus of Recent FisheriesAccording to Hayasi (1961), the major types offishing are with two-boat purse seines that produce60 percent of the total anchovy catch, and boat seinesof several varieties that catch 20 percent of the anchoviesand 75 percent of sirasu. Two-boat purse seinesand boat seines are chiefly operated for anchoviesat various stages of their life, but the fishermen engagingin these fisheries often change their objectsdepending on the stock sizes and prices of the specieswithin their fishing grounds. These fisheries have beenbest developed on the Pacific coast off Honsyu and inthe Set0 Inland Sea, which comprise the major anchovyfishing grounds inclusive of the postlarvalforms. In recent years these types of fisheries havecontinued to take the most important role in producinganchovies (Table 2).Anchovies, including sirasu, are caught throughoutthe year in Japan as a whole. The amount of catchincreases in the later half of a year with two peaks,one in the summer and the other in the winter. Thefishing season is limited in the northern areas; i.e.in the autumn in the Hokkaido and North PacificRegions, and in spring and autumn in the Japan Sea,while it lasts throughout the year in the central andsouthern areas of Japan. Fishing activities for bothanchovies and sirasu move from the open coast to thebays and inlets during spring and summer, and thenshift toward the open coast during autumn andwinter (Asami 1958, Hayasi 1961).The anchovy catch comprises various sized fishfrom postlarvae of 13 mm in total length to largeindividuals over 16 cm in body length. The fish over