Figure 1. — Schematic representation of the longline fishing method used in the American Samoa-based fishery. 



considerable fishing had already taken place as 

 far south as lat. 28° S., in waters southeast of the 

 Tonga Islands. The greatest expansion of grounds 

 was in 1958, however, when vessels extended fish- 

 ing eastward to the Marquesas Islands. In 1965, the 

 vessels fished in an extensive area from the Equator 

 to lat. 30° S. and from about long. 175° E. to about 

 long. 120° W., an area of about 23 million square 

 kilometers (6.7 million square nautical miles). 

 Vessels have fished as far as 5,500 km. (3,000 nauti- 

 cal miles) from their base. 



FISHING FLEET 



Beginning in 1954 with 7 fishing boats con- 

 tracted from Japan (a total of 16 different vessels 



participated in the fishery for varying periods dur- 

 ing the year), the fleet in American Samoa has 

 continued to increase over the years (fig. 3). De- 

 spite year-to-year fluctuations, the trend has been 

 one of rapid increase; in 1965, 154 different vessels 

 fished from American Samoa. The tremendous in- 

 crease in fleet size in 1963 reflects the start of oj^era- 

 tions that year of the Star-Kist tuna cannery. 



The composition of the fishing fleet, in terms of 

 the country of origin of the vessels, has changed 

 over the years. In the early years of the fishery, the 

 entire fleet was Japanese. Vessels from the Re- 

 public of Korea began ofjerating in the area in 

 1958 and vessels from the Republic of China in 



ALBACORE TAKEN IN LONGLINE FISHERY IN AMERICAN SAMOA 



49 



