COMPARISON OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AND LEAST 

 SUCCESSFUL WEST COAST ALBACORE TROLL FISHERMEN 



Donald F. Keene^ and William G. Pearcy^ 



ABSTRACT 



Catch data for albacore troll boats were collected from fishermen's logbooks and from dockside 

 interviews during the 1968, 1969, and 1970 seasons. Fishing powers of these boats were calculated and 

 used to determine the 10 most successful and 10 least successful fishermen (highliners and lowliners, 

 respectively) who fished off Oregon and Washington. Characteristics of these two groups of fishermen 

 were then compared. In general, highliners had longer boats and fished nearer the fleet center and along 

 the offshore margin of the fleet. Lowliners tended to have smaller boats and fished along the trailing 

 (south) inshore margin of the fleet. Both groups responded to changes in apparent albacore abundance 

 by aggregating on days of high apparent abundance, although this response was less pronounced in 

 1969 and 1970. Highliners caught significantly smaller (but more) fish than the lowliners. 



The west coast albacore troll-boat fleet consists of 

 many types and sizes of vessels (Clemens 1955). 

 Troll boats range in length from about 10.7 m (35 

 feet) to over 22.9 m (75 feet) with a displacement 

 of about 15 tons. Part of this fleet begins fishing 

 for albacore off the coast of Baja California in 

 early summer. During the peak of the season (July, 

 August, September) boats may be found from 

 Mexico to the Gulf of Alaska. However, the most 

 productive area usually lies between central Baja 

 California and the Columbia River (Clemens 1961). 

 Many boats, particularly those from Oregon and 

 Washington, fish for other species (salmon, crab, 

 shrimp) during part of the year (Roberts 1972) and 

 occasionally during the albacore season when 

 albacore fishing is slow. 



Fishermen in the albacore fleet exhibit a large 

 range of fishing success. Fishing success has been 

 related to strictly physical parameters of the 

 vessel, such as boat length (Fox^). Abramson 

 (1963) suggested that fishing success is related to 

 the skill and experience of the captain and crew, as 

 well as the physical parameters of the boat. Little 

 is known, however, about how fishing success is 

 related to the activities of individual albacore 

 fisherman and the activities of the surrounding 

 fleet. (The fleet is considered to be an assemblage 



'School of Oceanography, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 

 Oreg.; present address: Bureau of Land Management, Pacific 

 OCS Office, 300 North Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles, C A 90012. 



^School of Oceanography, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 

 OR 97331. 



■Tox, W. W. "Fishing power of U.S. vessels participating in the 

 Pacific coast albacore fishery 1961-1970." Paper presented at the 

 24th Tuna Conference, Lake Arrowhead, Calif., Oct. 1973. 



of fishing boats within an area of arbitrarily chosen 

 size.) The objective of this paper is to describe and 

 compare the characteristics and movements of the 

 most successful with those of the least successful 

 albacore fishermen during the 1968, 1969, and 1970 

 seasons. 



METHODS 

 Sources and Treatment of Data 



Information on number of fish caught per day 

 by troll boats, location of the catch, boat length, 

 and number of lines (1970 only) was collected from 

 three sources for the 1968, 1969, and 1970 albacore 

 seasons: 1) logbooks distributed by Oregon State 

 University (1969 and 1970), 2) logbooks distributed 

 by California Department of Fish and Game to 

 fishermen who volunteered to submit daily infor- 

 mation, and 3) interviews obtained bypersonnel of 

 the Oregon Fish Commission at dockside during 

 unloading of the albacore. Careful screening 

 avoided duplication of logbook records since ves- 

 sels often submitted records to more than one 

 source. Only catch locations between lat. 42° and 

 49°N were used. 



The number of reporting boats varied consider- 

 ably between years. In 1968, 205 boats reported 

 their daily catches and locations. In 1969 and 1970, 

 70 and 113 boats, respectively, reported. The total 

 number of boats fishing during the 3 yr is un- 

 known but is estimated to have been between 750 

 (Panshin 1971) and 1,000. 



Data from the logbooks and interview sheets 



Manuscript accepted May 1976. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 74, NO. 4, 1976. 



973 



