August 2, 1963
THE FISHERMAN
Page 7
East Bering Overfishing Study Made
Declining Japanese halibut catches in the eastern Bering Sea since the beginning of last month have prompted the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission to initiate a study to determine whether the area has been overfished, it is reported.
Commission director Roy Jackson said that Japanese vessels stopped fishing halibut in Area 3B North Triangle around the middle of July.
They had been fishing the area legally since May 8, when the Canadian government formally ratified enabling amendments to the North Pacific Fisheries Treaty, but there were well authenticated reports from Canadian and US fishermen that some Japanese vessels had been poaching halibut in the area even before the official opening to Canadian and US halibut fleets on March 25.
In mid-June, according to the Japanese newspaper Shin Suisan Shimbun, Japanese motherships fishing the 3B North Triangle Area included the 1,200 ton Fuji Maru No. 3, with five catcher boats; the 8,200 ton Seifu Maru, with 28 catcher boats, and the 1,700 ton Chichibu Maru No. 2, with seven catcher boats.
Most Canadian and US vessels left the area when Areas 2 and 3A opened on May 9.
When the Japanese stopped fishing, 10.4 million pounds of the 11 million pound quota set by the International Pacific Halibut Commission had been taken up.
Of this, Japanese fishermen took 3.1 million pounds, Canadian fishermen four million pounds and US fishermen, 3.3 million pounds.
JAPANESE PRICES
An indication of halibut prices and sales was given by the Japanese newspaper Suisan Tsushin on June 18 when it reported that halibut landed at Japanese ports by the major companies was quoted at 185 yen a kilogram—23.4 cents a pound in US money. Halibut landed by smaller boats was selling at 140-145 yen a kilogram—17.7-18.3 cents a pound in US money.'
Japanese caught halibut delivered at eastern US ports was about 10 cents a pound below last year's price at the quoted figure of 34-35 cents a pound.
Japanese trading companies were reported to have signea contracts to deliver several hundred tons of halibut to European buyers at a price ranging from 40 to 42 cents a pound c and f.
UNSCRAMBLED A phone call to our printers to correct the spelling of a name resulted in a scrambled caption to this picture when it appeared in our last issue — the printers pulled the wrong line. Caption should have read: Bill Wachsmuth (right), owner-skipper of the Milbanke Sound, is shown on the bridge of the new 91 foot seiner-halibut vessel with crew member Wally Paulik (left), UFAWU big boat vice president. With them is Bob Benson of Benson Bros., builders of the Milbanke Sound, largest fishing vessel yet launched from any BC yard. Incidentally, the correction was in the spelling of Len Rosengrin's name — he is a crew member, not the engineer, as stated. Engineer is Reidar Ramslie.
Spray May Have Killed Salmon Fry at Shuswap
Scientists from the fisheries department and International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission are still investigating the cause of heavy mortality among salmon fry at Shuswap Lake, Little River and Little Shuswap Lake in mid-July, The Fisherman was informed this week.
Although the cause has not yet been fully determined, aerial chemical spraying is suspected. A plane sprayed the area for mosquito control twice in the days immediately before residents discovered the dead fish and notified the department.
Thousands of dead fingerlings, ranging from three to five inches in length, were found on the shores of the two lakes and along the
connecting river at Squilax. They were predominantly sockeye and spring salmon fry.
Fisheries department officials said that while a substantial number of young fish had been killed, it represented only a small percentage of the millions of fry. They placed the number killed at around 250,000, although local residents claim the figure to be much higher.
Both the department and the Commission sent men to Squilax to obtain specimens of the fish for examination.
Skyway Air Services Ltd. of Langley and one of its pilots have been charged under the water pollution section of the Fisheries Act in a case to be heard in Kam-loops police court August 12.
No Change in Policy
Canada Hopes to Restore Trade in Fish with Cuba
The federal government "is looking for an opportunity to resume the sale of fish in the Cuban market," which formerly took up to 12 million pounds of Canadian fish annually, trade minister Mitchell Sharp informed the House of Commons on July 12.
Sharp made his statement in answering questions put to him by Percy Noble (PC, Grey North), one of which was: "Now that fish rationing has ended in Cuba, will the government make an effort to sell more fish products to that country?"
Noble's main question was concerned with ascertaining the Pearson government's attitude toward trade with Cuba.
"Is it the policy of this government to promote increased trade with Cuba, similar to the approach made by the former Conservative administration?" he asked.
When he first submitted the question, on July 11, Sharp said in view of the fact he had not been given notice of the question, he would answer it the following day.
But external affairs minister Paul Martin showed no such reticence.
Asked by Gordon Aiken (PC, Parry Sound-Muskoka) a few minutes later whether there had been "any change from the policy of the previous government toward Cuba," in view of US action freezing Cuban assets, Martin replied:
"I would say in reply that if and when there should be any significant modifications in Canada's diplomatic or • other relations with Cuba, the House will be informed in the same way as in the case of Canada's relations with other countries."
NO POLICY CHANGE
Outlining the government's policy the following day, Sharp stated:
"This government prohibits the re-export to  Cuba  of  goods of
PEI Gets Experimental Oyster Hatchery
This country's first experimental oyster hatchery will be built this summer at the fisheries department's Oyster Culture Station at Ellerslie, Prince Edward Island, fisheries minister H. J. Robichaud announced last week. Purpose of the project is to develop and stabilise the oyster fishery of the Maritime Provinces.
•
Contract for construction of the hatchery and a standby generator house has been awarded to R. H.
Rankin Construction of Summer-side, PEI.
The new hatchery is intended to provide oyster seed stock to Maritime oyster farmers in sufficient quantities to ensure a continuing harvest.
Of late years, oyster spat has not been available from its natural habitat, and experience has shown that no reliable prediction of the wild supply can be made in time to avoid waste effort. The uncertainty of supply of spat for seeding purposes should be relieved
if the oyster hatchery is as successful as expected.
Costing approximately $38,000, the new hatchery will include a controlled seawater system to provide an environment as close as possible to nature for the successful rearing of oyster spat.
R. E. Drinnan, head of the oyster investigation work of the Fisheries Research Board's Biological Station at St. Andrew's, NB, will have general direction of the new totchery when it is completed in October.
United States origin. Otherwise the government places no obstacles in the way of trade with Cuba in non-military and non-strategic goods.
"The trade between Canada and Cuba has been running at about
'Trade Butter For Sugar'
Canada could act to curb sugar profiteering by trading surplus Canadian butter for Cuban sugar. Marine Workers secretary William Stewart told delegates at last month's meeting of Vancouver Labor Council.
Commenting on an exchange of correspondence between the Canadian Labor Congress and the federal government on sugar prices, Stewart said:
"As a recent visitor to Cuba, I should point out that Cuba has a shortage of fats, which it is importing from the Soviet Union, but no shortage of sugar.
"Canada has a shortage of sugar — at least short world supplies are given as the reason for rising prices — and a surplus of butter.
"Why shouldn't we trade some of our surplus butter, which is subsidised by the taxpayers, for Cuban sugar? In effect, by not doing this, we are subsidising a sugar shortage."
the same level as in the previous
year.
"In the calendar year 1962, Canadian exports to Cuba were valued at S10.9 million, and imports from Cuba were valued at S2.8 million.
"Our most recent export figures indicate that during the first five months of 1963, Canadian exports were valued at $4.6 million. I think the House will be interested to know the composition of that trade.
"It consists in the main of inedible tallow, infant and junior foods, agricultural chemicals, cured pork, veterinary medicines and dairy cattle."
TRADE MISSION URGED
Colin Cameron (NDP, Nanaimo-Cowichan—The Islands) wanted to know "whether the government's hope of expanding this trade to its former level is to be implemented by the dispatch of a trade commission to Cuba."
Sharp replied that "there is no intention at present of appointing a trade commissioner to Cuba; but of course policy is always under review, and if such an appointment were made it would be announced in this House."
On July 16, asked by NDP national leader T. C. Douglas to reassure the House that Canada would not comply with a reported US request to discontinue flights between Toronto and Havana, Prime Minister Pearson said no such request had been received by the government.
Japanese Fish Landings Set New Record in 1962
Japan's fish and shellfish production reached a record 6.86 million metric tons in 1962, according to figures released by the statistics and survey division of the ministry of agriculture and forestry.
The 1962 figure represented a 2.3 percent increase over 1961 total landings of 6.71 million metric tons, but it was also the smallest increase since 1958.
Despite the increase in total landings, which included seaweed and kelp production but not whale catches, actual fish landings decreased by 102,000 metric tons. Higher shellfish and other marine produqjjion compensated for this two percent decline in fish land-
ings and boosted total landings to the new record level.
Pacific and jack mackerel topped fish landings, the 900,000 ton total accounting for 18 percent of all landings. Tuna (604,000 tons) contributed 12 percent, flatfish (501,-000 tons) 10 percent, saury (483,-000 tons) 9.7 percent, Alaska pollock (452,000 tons) 9.1 percent, and anchovy (349,000 tons) 6.4 percent.
Salmon production declined, but the actual figure was not immediately obtainable.
High tuna landings; up 23 percent in 1961 and seven percent in 1962, are attributed to the government's policy of relaxing resric-tions on construction of larger tuna vessels capable of exploiting distant water fisheries. ~"
KNOTS WON'T BUDGE . • • EVER!
i
"X ■ x *■ N   v "x    • v "x.
•*h*J1* .^^^v*^ >s^-x*T- x£*-' >^
I
%
X.....v»
f
0
\
AS7
yet MANRYO LINES can't be beat for gentleness to hands and handling ease!
How can lines offer essential non-slip properties together with softness that makes handling a pleasure? Because MANRYO—unlike most other synthetic fibers—is made available as spun yarn, which naturally makes for strong, stable knotting plus peerless ease in handling. These properties amply explain MANRYO's especial popularity in Canada for service on salmon gill nets' float and sinker lines, but they're only the beginning of MANRYO advantages:
MANRYO lines are invariable in quality and performance, and always provide just-right elongation to assure complete dimensional stability for all netting systems.
MANRYO ropes feature outstanding durability because they are 100-per cent rot-proof, unusually strong, highly abrasion-resistant, reliably twisted, and extremely resistant to all hazards from ultraviolet rays to physical shock.
It is easy to see, then, why MANRYO lines are so easy on the pocketbook: Their low initial cost and longer useful life make them ideally economical.
And even at their very reasonable price, MANRYO lines are fully backed by the reliability and reputation of Kurashiki Rayon Co., Ltd., prominent among the world's leading manufacturers of man-made fibers.
MANRYO-LINE
(POLYVINYL  ALCOHOL FIBER)
for FISHING INDUSTRY
KURASHIKI RAYON CO., LTD. 8, UME0A, KITA-KU, OSAKA, JAPAN CABLE ADDRESS: KURARAY OSAKA