Review of herring fishery and its biological research in Japan

Herring fishery in Japan has been conducted since before the fifteenth century, chiefly from the coasts of Hokkaido and for spawning schools. This fishery was subsequently expanded gradually, the landing volumes also increasing in the process, until at the end of the nineteenth century it ushered in a golden age for herring when in the year 1897 the landing volume amounted to close on a million tonnes. Sustaining a fishery such as this were the resources of Hokkaido‐Sakhalin herring. Yet from this peak year onward these resources gradually began to show a tendency to decline, until in 1960 they disappeared completely from the Hokkaido coasts and have not recovered to this day. This report reviews biological research in Japan relating to the Hokkaido‐Sakhalin herring and notes the historical process in which herring fishery in Japan spread out first from the coasts to the offing and then to the deep ocean. It also reviews the condition of, and research relating to, the local herring at present to be found,...