The Development of Coastal Purse Seine Fishery after Boat Motorization -Case of Nomozaki District, Nagasaki Prefecture-

This paper analyses the development process of coastal purse seine fishery and/or the round haul net fishery, which plays an important role on the rural society, of the Nomozaki District in Nagasaki Prefecture from a socio-economic view point. The object period between the mid-1920s and the mid-1980 could be divided into several stages. (1)The Fisheries Experimental Station of Nagasaki Prefecture tested this motorized and innovative fishery technology in the mid-1920s. After the Great Depression, this fishery had developed rapidly up until its peak in the mid-1930s, depending on the local appreciation of fishes and an abundant sardine resource. The highly productive purse seine fishery improved the sardine processing sector. (2)The Second World War had destroyed this fishery and the related industry by a conscription of boats and crews, a scarcity of fishing materials, and the wartime control. (3)After the war, this fishery was revived. This was due to the new food security policy, some innovations that increased productivity, and a high inflation rate, caused by a lack of material and the food control plan. There was an even larger rise in the local population, as well as crew members, and workers at the fish processing sector. (4)With a disappearance of sardines in the 1950s, this fishery and the related industry declined. Trials of advancement into the distant waters by larger boats had failed. Some boats were used for coastal fishery instead supplying sardines for cocked and dried fish processing and supplying mackerel and horse mackerel for the fresh fish market. The boat owners had changed hands and the crews had become order. (5)During the two decades following the mid-1960s, this fishery became steady due to a great economic progress, rising fish prices and an increase in anchovy, which are more suitable for cocked and dried fish processing instead of sardines