total French and Spanish catches of 

 1972 and 1973 consisted of fish 

 weighing less than 30 kg, whereas 

 67% and 80%, respectively, of the 

 French catches for those years were 

 offish weighing less than 30 kg. They 

 found two apparent causes for this 

 difference 



— the French sought out the smaller 

 fish, which command a higher 

 price, 



— the baits used by tire Spaniards 

 were larger than those used bv the 

 French. 



In view of the virtual disappear- 

 ance of medium sized bluefin tuna 

 from the landings of the Nonvcgian 

 fishery since 1962, and their rela- 

 tively poor showing in the trap fish- 

 eries of the Ibcro-Moroccan Bay (sub- 

 part g of this section), it is unfortu- 

 nate that size composition data for 

 Spanish landings prior to 1 972 are 

 not available. 



In addition to the commercial 

 fisheries, there has been an active 

 sport fisher}^ along the north coast of 

 Spain for bluefin tuna and albacorc. 

 Reportedly (L. F de Gamboa, M R. 

 Borrell, personal communications) 

 this fishery has declined greatly in 

 recent years because of lack of fish- 

 ing success In addition, giant blue- 

 fin have been taken by Michael and 

 Helen Lerner in August 1947 off 

 Trehurden (Normandy, France) 

 (Famngton 1949) and in the Bay of 

 Biscay by the late Cleneralissimo 

 Franco and Max Borrell (Max Borrell. 

 personal communication). 



e. West Coast of Portugal 



Small bluefin w ere taken by troll- 

 ing in the vicinity of Cape Espichel 

 (south of Lisbon), Portugal, in late 

 summer and early fall. The season 

 usually started m September-Octo- 

 ber (Vilcia and Monteiro 1961, 

 quoted in fiews 1963) In 1960 the 

 entire catchof5,500 fish (34 65 tons), 

 awraging 6 3 kg, was taken m No- 

 vember The 1961 catch was 7,859 

 fish totalling 36.01 tons (4 6 kg aver- 

 age) (Hamre and Tiews 1964) Both 

 years" catches consisted of a large 

 group of age 1 fish (50-70 cm) and a 

 smaller group of age 2 fish (75-85 

 cm), as shown by histograms for each 

 year and a sample of 128 fish from 

 September 1961 catches presented by 

 Hamre and I'lews (1964). 



The 1965 catch is illustrated by 

 the length hequencies of a 363 -fish 

 sample tabulated by week of capture 

 (weeks 40-46, September 26-Novem- 

 ber 1 3), All of the 363 fish measured 

 were age 1; their total weight was 

 2,047 kg and the average was 5 6 kg 

 The total catch of about 13,000 fish 

 weighing 75 tons was taken mainly 

 between early October and early No- 

 vember The 1966 catch was small 

 and irregular and was not recorded 

 (Hamre el al. 1968) In l')68, 26,199 

 fish averaging 5 kg were taken 

 (Hamre ct al. 197] ) 



f. West coast of Morocco 



Small bluelin are taken olT the 

 west coast of Morocco hy hook and 

 line, live bail, and .seine fisheries (ihc 

 trap fisheiy will be discussed sepa- 

 rately). Catches ranged up to 2,000 

 tons in the mid 1 960s, but have been 

 less than 1000 tons in recent vears 

 (Figure 43). Fish are present during 

 most of the year, but the largest 

 catches occur in autumn (Aloncle 

 1964) 



Aloncle (1966) gave the length 

 composition of a 9 1 -fish sample from 

 a purse seine catch of 700 kg of blue- 

 fin taken September 9, 1967, at 

 30M0'N, 10°05-W (off Cape Ghir). 

 The lengths ranged from 50 to 67 

 cm, with nearly all tlie samples in a 

 modal group extending from 56 to 

 65 cm, and having its main peak at 

 62 cm. This indicates that nearly all 

 the fish were age 1 Aloncle stated 

 that bluefin of this age were common 

 in the region at this season. I'his catch 

 was made duung a .series of experi- 

 mental cruises of the seiner 

 "Danguy,"" which extended from Sep- 

 tember 1964 to July 1965, and cov- 

 ered the area bounded by the African 

 coast from Tangier to Cape Bojador, 

 the south coasts of Spain and Portu- 

 gal, the Canary Islands, and the Ma- 

 deira archipelago 



I'he first lew weeks of the cruise 

 resulted in the capture ol age and 

 age 1 bluefin and sightings of age 2 

 and possibly age 3 bluefin The few 

 bluefin taken by trolling during the 

 winter were in the 62-cm class In 

 late April and early Ma\' two indi- 

 viduals, one 70 em and one 4 v5 cm 

 long, were taken northeast of the Sal- 

 vage Islands These wouki ha\e been 



ages 2 and 1 , respectiveh . in the en- 

 suing summer 



In Novcmbei and December 

 1960, fishing boats from Barbate, 

 Spain, seined a great quantity of blue- 

 fin about 42 cm long and 1.7 kg in 

 weight, along with young albacore 

 of about the same size (Rodriguez- 

 Roda 1964a) A histogram of a 

 sample of 100 of these showed a 

 range from 38 to 45 cm, with a mode 

 at 419 cm. This author slates that the 

 fishermen of Barbate often .seine blue- 

 fin of 40 to 60 cm in length off the 

 Moroccan coast from Larache to 

 Casablanca and even to Safi and 

 Agadir in October, November and 

 December 



g. Ibcro-Moroccan Bay Trap 

 Fisheries 



As noted previously, trap fisher- 

 ies for bluefin tuna have existed in 

 the Ibero-Moroccan Bay (Figures 44 

 and 45) for centuries. The recorded 

 histories of the Spanish and Portu- 

 guese fisheries date back to the 1 5th 

 and 16th centuries, respectively 

 (Pavesi 1889) On the other hand, we 

 have found no records of Moroccan 

 Atlantic traps prior to the 20th cen- 

 tury The Phoenicians and 

 Carthaginians who fished intensively 

 for bluefin in all these areas in the 

 pre-Christian era (Parona 1919), how- 

 ever, probably operated traps similar 

 to those still in use (Thomazi 1947). 



The specialized tuna traps are 

 very large and complex structures, 

 with a leader extending up to 5 km, 

 and sometimes e\en more, from the 

 shore to the bod\' of the trap. In many 

 cases an additional leader extends 

 diagonally up to 2 km farther off- 

 shore (Figure 46) Traps have been 

 described and illustrated by several 

 authors (Pavesi 1889, Parona 1919, 

 Rodriguez-Roda 1964a, Sara 1964, 

 de Cristofaro 1970). Two basic types 

 of tuna traps have been used exten- 

 sively, the "Atlantic" or "Spanish" 

 trap and the "Mediterranean" or "Si- 

 cilian" trap Fodera (1964) and de 

 Cristofaro (1970) described the de- 

 sign, construction and relative advan- 

 tages and disadvantages of each r\pe. 

 fhe traps in the Ibero-Moroccan Bay 

 were of the Atlantic type 



Most of the traps along the Span- 

 ish and Portuguese coasts faced west 

 and fished the "arrival" (eastward) 



42 



