HERRING IN OTHER AREAS 35. Review of Japanese Herring Investigations By SlGERU MOTODA Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan and Y o s h im i H ir a n o Hokkaido Fisheries Experimental Station, Yoichi, Hokkaido, Japan Introduction History of the herring fisheries in Japan The Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii Cuvier et Valen­ The main basis of the fishery in the period of pros­ ciennes, is distributed in the northern cold region of perity in the Japanese herring fisheries was the so- the North Pacific, and supports, or has supported, called Hokkaido “spring herring”, which appeared the great fisheries of northern Japan, Sakhalin, Korea near the shore to spawn, along the west and north­ and the Siberian coast in the north-western Pacific, east coasts of Hokkaido, from late March to late May. and those of Alaska and British Columbia in the north­ Historical records indicate that there were great eastern Pacific. In Japanese waters, tremendously large fluctuations in landings both between years and loca­ numbers of schools of herring appeared, in the past, lities. Since the towns and villages on the coast largely to spawn along the west coast of Hokkaido and smaller depended on the herring fisheries, their prosperity numbers (usually about 10% of the total catch) on and decline occurred in close correspondence with the the north-east coast, in the spring season, but they rise and fall of the herring catch (H i r a n o , 1947). have now almost disappeared (Figure 1). Since its According to written history, the herring fisheries establishment in 1902 herring investigations have been of Japan have been carried on since 1447, but stati­ one of the major undertakings of the Hokkaido Fish­ stical catch data were not recorded until 1870. In eries Experimental Station. They were initiated by the early days the herring were probably fished by very late Mr. M. Yamaguchi, and continued by the late primitive methods such as shore dip nets, and fishing Mr. M. Kuragami, then by Mr. Y. Kajita, followed was restricted to the northern part of the west coast by one of the present writers (Y. Hirano). Valuable, of Honshu, and around Tsugaru Straits, which se­ and voluminous papers on the fisheries and biology parate Honshu and Hokkaido. There is information of the Hokkaido herrings were published by earlier that set nets have been used since 1810, and further investigators (Araki, 1926; Yamaguchi, 1926 a, 1926 b; improvements in gear appeared in about 1856. The Fujita and Kokxjbo, 1927), and since those days in­ fishing area gradually extended northward on the numerable papers have appeared until the present west coast of Hokkaido in the Japan Sea, expanding time. Knowledge on the Japanese herring, thus accu­ farther into the north-east coast in the Okhotsk Sea mulated, was summarized by Ishida (1952), and the and even to the northern part of the east coast in present writers’ opinion on the Japanese herring are about 1810. It is said that the total landings gradually now being published (Hirano, 1961 a, 196lb, 1961c, increased during the period from 1447 to 1870, along 1961 d, 1961 e, 196If, 1961g). There are bibliographi­ with the expansion of the fishing area. cal compilations of herring studies published by Records of the total landings of Hokkaido spring Motoda and Takeuchi (1950), M acy (1955) and herring are available since 1871. These are given in SCATTERGOOD (1957). Figure 2. In the expression “fishing effort” in Figure 2, 250 U 6 UO U1 U 3 U 5 /SOUTH1 l SAKHALIN ANIWA BAY OKHOTSK SEA Kutsugata @ JAPAN S EA v“gisof"ri Mashike Ishi ka ri O ^ HOKKAIDO If I << ' 0 / ° / ‘\ 0 Sapporo m b e & Ina ho Esashi PACIFIC OCEAN HONSHU Figure 1. Map of Hokkaido and adjacent areas. 251 2 en -i< O2 f- <S) oer ^t- Ll z Ll u . LU o o er O LO O lo LO o LO oLO o LO LO o LO o LO C" CD CD cn o O CM CM CO LO LO Figure 2. Fluctuations in annual landings of spring herring and in fishing effort on the western and north-eastern coasts of Hokkaido. ten drift net boats are equated to one ordinary set net; HIYAMA two small-sized set nets are considered equivalent to one ordinary set net. The number of nets in 1886- 1905 is estimated from the num ber of fishing licenses issued whereas before 1885 they are estimated merely on the assumption that the nets increased every year SHIRIBESHI at the same rate (Kawana, 1948). Since 1947 the numbers are based on the statistics recorded by the Division of Fisheries of the Hokkaido Provincial Government. The records show that the catch in­ creased until 1897 as a result of the increase in fishing effort, which was increased greatly by the invention of a special rectangular trap net, in about 1891. This net was very effective for catching fish moving towards ISHIKARI the shore. The period from 1894 to 1904 was the most prosperous in the history of the Japanese herring fisheries. In 1897 more than 5,000 set nets were in operation along the west and north-east coasts of Hokkaido, and the landings reached 975,000 tons, RUMOI which corresponded to approximately 4,000 million fish. After this period, total landing decreased year by year though there was a recovery during the period from 1913 to 1927. It is noticed that this decline of total landing occurred along with a very regular SOYA disappearance of the spawning runs, beginning in the south and extending northward along the west coast of Hokkaido (Fig. 3). No spawning run appeared in the south of Shakotan Peninsula after 1925, and no fish visited Ishikari Bay and to the south of it after ABASHIRI 1935. A decrease in landings, together with a northerly restriction of fishing area (spawning area) occurred for several years before the catch finally reached the (O CO (0(0(0 (O (O O minim um (12,800 tons) in 1938. Thereafter the catch coO o>o »— c n m sf in to improved somewhat to 1944-1945, but it has again cn cn o o> o cn declined drastically to the present day. In 1960 it was no more than 300 tons. During the period of the recovery after 1938, the fishing extended back to the Figure 3. Fluctuations in annual catches of spring herring at six south as far as Shakotan Peninsula. divisions on the western and north-eastern coasts of Hokkaido, averaged for 10-year periods to indicate the northerly restriction In addition to the Hokkaido fishery, spawning her- of the fishing area. 252 15 — Figure 4. Fluctuations in landings of South Sakhalin spring herring (R u m y a n t z e v , 1958; H ir a n o , 1959). Cfi £10 ring near the shore of South Sakhalin from April to May were also exploited by Japanese fisheries before the war. These spawning runs appeared on both the o west and east coast as well as in Aniwa Bay on the south coast of South Sakhalin. The landings in this fishery are shown in Figure 4. It is noticed that the fluctuati­ ons in landings in this fishery before 1934 seem to have alternated somewhat with those in the Hokkaido spring fishery, giving a reasonable steady catch for the two combined. This alternation disappeared after about 1935, when both fisheries declined greatly. The similar­ CM Lf> r- co ity of their racial characters and age compositions, as in in in in well as the inverse relation in landings (at least before 1934) suggests that the Hokkaido and South Sakhalin Figure 5. Annual landings of spawning herring in Akkeshi Bay- spring herring belong to the same population. Herring schools also appear off Aniwa Bay in the Okhotsk Sea in winter and through spring to early considerably in number in recent years. The Hokkaido summer and are fished commercially. The winter Fisheries Experimental Station has recently made ob­ schools have been fished by trawling since 1950, and servations in the behaviour of larval herring resulting the spring-summer school by offshore gill net fishing from the increased spawning in Akkeshi Bay (M ik a m i since 1957 ( K o n d a et al., 1958). The winter trawl fish­ et al., 1961). ery has further developed with the catch amounting to as m uch as about 4,000 tons in 1960, while the Life history and migration of Hokkaido spring herring spring-summer gill net fishery has yielded an annual Comprehensive studies of the habits of Hokkaido catch of about 15,000 tons ( K i t a h a m a and N a k a y a m a , spring herring were first published by Yamaguchi 1958). (1926a; 1926 b) ; many later works have supplemented Fishing of small herring, mostly 1—2 year-olds, also them. In early spring (February and March), herring takes place on the Pacific coast of Hokkaido, normally appear in the north of Hokkaido in the Japan Sea from May to July. Annual catches were less than and migrate to the south feeding voraciously on plank­ 50,000 tons up to 1950. Adult herring also appeared, ton animals, such as Euphausia pacifica, Thysanoessa iner- though in small numbers, on the Pacific coast to spawn mis, Calanus cristatus, Calanus plumchrus, Metridia lucens, mainly from winter to spring. The spawning area etc. (Motoda and Sakai, 1946; M otoda and T akeu- covered the east and south-east coasts of Hokkaido. chi, 1949; 1960). During this southward migration, The racial characteristics of this population resemble they mature and enter coastal waters, where the fe­ those of the spring herring, of the west coast ( F u j i t a males spawn on sea weeds or, abnormally, on gravel and K o k u b o , 1927; S a t o and Kobayashi, 1951).