em Norwegian areas, but is espe- 

 cially striking for the soutiicm area 

 (Figure 39) 



c. North Sea 



The German bluefin tuna fish- 

 ery in the North Sea was carried out 

 by handline, with the capture some- 

 times facilitated by an electrocuting 

 system (Meyer- Waarden 1951) The 

 landings reached a maximum of 

 1,286 tons in 1957 but declined to 

 194 tons m 1962 (Tiews 1975). The 

 fishery was then abandoned because 

 of lack of fish. The catch consisted 

 entirely of giant fish (Figure 40) An 

 increase in the modal size of the fish 

 taken since 1952 is apparent A simi- 

 lar Danish fishery' took catches of 

 from 800 to 2,100 tons in the years 

 1950-1955, but became negligible 

 after 1959 (Tiews 1975). 



Small catches of bluefin tuna 

 ha\'e been taken in the approaches to 

 the Baltic by Danish fishermen using 

 various gears Yearly catches since 

 1960 have been less than 200 tons. 

 The fish taken have been large, with 

 the modal size increasing in recent 

 years. Sport fishing in the Oresund 

 near Elsinore, Denmark, in 1948- 

 1954 and 1960 produced yearly 

 catches of from 18 to 119 fish with 

 average weights of from 120 to 260 

 kg (L. R. Crandall, personal commu- 

 nication). 



English sport fishermen have oc- 

 casionally taken giant bluefin tuna m 

 the North Sea. The British 'funny 

 Club (Anonymous 1937) reported 

 that tuna appear off the Shetland Is- 

 lands in June and between 

 Scarborough and the Dogger Bank 

 off the Yorkshire coast from July to 

 October. Sport catches in the latter 

 area from 1932 to 1936 were listed 

 as 21, 80, 54, 53, and 33, respec- 

 tively. The veiy difficult conditions 

 for this sport, combined with the lack 

 offish in recent years, have prevented 

 its growlh. 



d. Bay of Biscay 



The most imporlaiU fislicry for 

 small (2.5-35 kg) bluefin tuna in the 

 eastern North Atlantic has been in 

 the Bay of Biscay (Figure 36). fhis 

 Bay is therefore, prcsuiiiubly, the 

 major nursery ground for yi)ung blue- 

 fin in the region and is a major source 

 of recruitment to the fisheries for mc- 



D 



NORTHERN AREA 

 SOUTHERN AREA 



No. X 10 



50-1 



25- 



J 



25- 



O-J 



0-^ 



25- 



25- 



?5-i 



AGE: 6 7 8 9 1G 11 12 13 years 



Figure 37 Weight distnbution ol bluefin tiuiu ^.apiured from Norwegian waters 

 bv aiea and yemv llic columns to the left show iiumbci of fish landed with one 

 unit equaling 5,000 fish (from Mamre 1 97 1 ). 



38 



