The authorization of seining for 

 blucfin tiinn in iTcnch Mediterranean 

 waters in 1960 brought about a eon- 

 siderablc increase in the catches of 

 the species The development of the 

 fishery in the Gulf of Lions was de- 

 scribed by di Meglio (1962) and 

 Farrugio (1977). Some old boats, 

 mainly trawlers, were fitted with this 

 gear The first seines, "cinciole", were 

 derived from the Italian type and the 

 second, "cerco", from the Portuguese 

 type used off Morocco The annual 

 catch in the Gulf of Lions immedi- 

 ately increased from about 500 tons 

 in the years 1 950- 1 96 1 to about 1 ,000 

 tons in 1 96 1 and 1 962 (Maurin 1 964) 

 Most of the 1 962 catch was taken in 

 the beginning of the year in the re- 

 gion of Marseille and Rousillon The 

 French seine fishery for blucfin off 

 Pro\ence and in the Gulf of Genoa 

 began in 1967 (Patania 1967) and 

 has produced more than half of the 

 total French Mediterranean catches 

 of this species since then (Farrugio 

 1977). Hamre et al. (1971) reported 

 that from July 1969 through Januan,' 

 1970 purse seine catches off the 

 Mediterranean coast of France to- 

 talled 1,500 tons, with most catches 

 occumng in October and No\'ember. 

 Catches have fluctuated around 1 ,500 

 tons since 1966 with lows of 1,100 

 tons in 1970 and 1972 and a high of 

 2,200 tons in 1971 (Farrugio 1977). 

 Miyake et al. (1976) reported gener- 

 ally smaller catches in this period 

 For some years, their figures differed 

 considerably from those of Farrugio 

 (1977). 



The best pre-seining fishing in 

 the Gulf of Lions was from earl}' 

 April to mid- June and from late July 

 to the end of September, with a lull 

 from mid-June to mid-July. Scattered 

 fish were caught in hitc Februai-y and 

 March, and from October into early 

 December. Late December and Janu- 

 ary were periods of scarcity 

 (Doumenge 1953) Data on the 1963- 

 1965 catches (Mamie et al 1968) 

 showed minor peaks in March and 

 major peaks in Scplembcr-October 

 Farrugio (1977) reported that the 

 seine fisheiy was active in the Gulf 

 of Lions from early March to late 

 May and from October into Decem- 

 ber and in the eastern area (St Trope/ 



to Capo delle Melc) from .luly to late 

 September or early October 



Farrugio (1977) described the 

 seine fishing areas. In the Gulf of 

 Lions, fish were taken in September 

 and October in two areas, one be- 

 tween Port Vendrcs and Leucate and 

 the other between Sete and Marseille 

 Beginning in November or Decem- 

 ber, they tend to concentrate in the 

 northern part of the Gulf between 

 Sete and the mouth of the Rhone At 

 all seasons, the fish are generally less 

 than 20 miles (33.3 km) from the 

 coasts, in waters whose depths rarely 

 exceed 100 m OlT Provence and in 

 the Gulf of Genoa, the fishing occurs 

 from 5 to 50 miles (8.3 to 83 km) off 

 the coast between Cap de S. I'ropez 

 and Capo dellc Melc 



Until recently, little information 

 on the sizes of fi.sh taken in these 

 fisheries has been available. Gounet 

 ( 1 894) showed that the average sizes 

 of blucfin taken near Marseille in 

 1891 and 1892 by traps and other 

 gears ranged from 18 to 28 kg. 

 Samples of catches taken in the Gulf 

 of Lions (off Languedoc, l-rancc) in 

 1953 and 1954 consisted of blucfin 

 of ages 1, 2, 3, and 4 (about 48, 80, 

 97 and 119 cm long, respectively) 

 (Doumenge and Lahaye 1958) Little 

 variation in sizes offish with method 

 of capture was indicated by cither of 

 these studies. Samples of the 1968 

 and 1969 catches showed that most 

 of the fish were in the "small" size 

 group, with age 3 dominant in both 

 years (Figure 54). Since then, this 

 predominance of age 3 fish has re- 

 mained relatively constant (Figure 

 55) In 1970 and 1971 a significant 

 showing of medium (ages 6-8) and 

 small giant (ages 8-10+) blucfin oc- 

 curred but this has not happened since 

 (Farrugio 1977) The 1971 catch con- 

 sisted partially of 120 tons of blucfin 

 weighing from 100 to 150 kg (ages 

 8-10), which were reportedly taken 

 o(\' Sete, France, in April by three 

 sardine-tuna seiners (Anonymous 

 1971). fhc possibilities of seining 

 blucfin off the Meditenanean coast 

 of Spain were mentioned by Hcllon 

 ( 1954), but, apparently, they have not 

 been developed significantly In their 

 review of the fisheries for tunas and 

 related s|iecies m the Mediterranean 

 and Atlantic waters off southern 



Spain, Laboratono Oceanografico 

 I'alma cl al (1976) do not mention 

 seining, c\'en among the minor gears. 

 Rodrigucz-Roda (1964a), however, 

 noted that considerable numbers of 

 age blucfin (0.5 kg in September, 

 October, 1 kg in November, and 2 kg 

 in December) were often taken by 

 sardine .seiners off Alicante, Spain, 

 mixed in with the sardines Consid- 

 erable catches of age blucfin in the 

 same season during 1976 were also 

 reported (F L de Gamboa and J 

 Hexnat OrUz, personal communica- 

 tions). Rodriguez-Roda (1964b) also 

 reported considerable catches of age 

 blucfin m the fall of 1963 off the 

 Mediterranean coast of Morocco by 

 Spanish seiners based at Ceuta. 



Spanish and Japanese longlinc 

 \essels ha\e also taken bluefin tuna 

 in the western Mediterranean An- 

 nual catches of the Spanish Mediter- 

 ranean longline ficet, which fishes 

 primarily for broadbill swordfish, 

 Xipluas gladius Linnaeus (1758), in- 

 cluded from 16 to 274 tons of bluefin 

 in the years 1968-1974 (Laboratorio 

 Oceanografico Palma et al 1976) 

 Japanese longhners took 238, 427 

 and 7,980 bluefin tuna in Mediterra- 

 nean waters west of longitude 10°E 

 in 1972, 1973, and 1974, respectively. 

 Fish were caught from April into 

 October, with the highest catch rates, 

 up to 24 fish per 1 ,000 hooks, occur- 

 ring in June. Good catch rates were 

 also attained in May and August 

 (Fisheries Agency of Japan 1974. 

 1975, 1976). 



Rodriguez-Roda (1969d) ex- 

 pressed concern over massive catches 

 t)f very N'oung blucfin in the western 

 Mediterranean, as w ell as off the At- 

 lantic coast of Morocco, which he 

 had described previously (Rodrigucz- 

 Roda 1964a, 1964b) He reported 

 catches of large numbers of age 

 fi.sh in the fall by seiners off Alicante 

 and the trap at La Linea in Spain, and 

 by .seiners and Irajis off the Mediter- 

 ranean coast of Africa ]ust east of 

 Gibraltar He reported that, in the 

 period September 15-October 19, 

 1963, about 500.000 age bluefin 

 were taken by the Ceuta seiners and 

 the traps in the \icinity This was. 

 however, an exceptional year, accord- 

 ing to his infomiant. Wc have been 

 advised that comparable catches of 



52 



