Adriatic Seas in 1950 (Scaccini and 

 Biancaiana 1959). These authors in- 

 dicated that the early fishing occurred 

 mainly along the Tyrrhenian coast 

 from Salerno to Gaeta and along 

 much of the Adriatic coast between 

 Barletta and Trieste. They reported 

 that the season extended from the 

 end of March to mid-November, and 

 that the bluefm tuna taken weighed 

 from 4 to 30 kg. Their statistics 

 showed that the total Italian purse 

 seine catches from 1950 through 1957 

 ranged from 35 1 to 722 tons per year, 

 amounting to from 23 to 72 percent 

 of the corresponding catches of the 

 traditional trap fishery. 



Purse seines, including a modi- 

 fied type called the cianciolo (de 

 Gaetani 1948) have also been used 

 extensively to catch small fishes, in- 

 cluding young bluefm tuna, in Sicil- 

 ian waters. This seining often takes 

 place at night, with the aid of a light 

 to attract the fish. Despite the regula- 

 tion prohibiting the capture of blue- 

 fin tuna less than 90 cm long (Sara 

 1968), great numbers of bluefln less 

 than a year old (55 cm long) have 

 been caught (Sara 1965c, 1968; de 

 Cristofaro 1970, P. Arena, personal 

 communication). Sari (1973) attrib- 

 uted the decline in the numbers of 

 large bluefin to the heavy fishing of 

 young individuals. 



The French seiners which began 

 fishing small bluefin and aibacore in 

 the Ligurian Sea (see subsection a) 

 in 1967 were soon joined by their 

 Italian counterparts (Cesareo 1973, 

 1974a). According to Cesareo, these 

 vessels had reduced the stock to such 

 an extent by 1970 that there was no 

 incentive to fish in the area for the 

 next two years. The stock apparently 

 recovered, or returned to the area, in 

 1973 and the seiners were present in 

 1974. 



A most important innovation in 

 the central Mediterranean tuna fish- 

 ery was the creation of a tleet of 

 modem Italian seiners which began 

 fishing for large spawning and 

 postspawning bluefin in 1972 (Paini 

 1975, Miyake 1976). According to 

 Paini, these vessels fished for two 

 months off the Aeolian Islands and 

 for one month in the Sicilian Chan- 

 nel. Afterward, they went north and 

 fished for small tuna and aibacore. 



Miyake (1976) stated that the season 

 started in May and peaked in June- 

 July, He indicated that the fishing 

 area was in the southwestern 

 Tyrrhenian Sea, from the north coast 

 of Sicily to Salerno. Data for the 

 catches in 1972-1976 are shown in 

 Table 15. P. Arena also furnished 

 data (Miyake 1976) on the size com- 

 position of the catches, as shown in 

 Table 16. 



The seine catch in 1975 thus ap- 

 proached that of the traps in their 

 better years early in this century. It is 

 uncertain whether the concentration 

 of large tuna in offshore waters is a 

 new phenomenon, or one which sim- 

 ply had not previously been observed 

 and used. Tlie decline of the trap 

 catches encouraged the exploration 

 of offshore waters, and the use of 

 active gears. The development of the 

 modern purse seine and iongline pro- 

 vided the necessary equipment. It had 

 been generally agreed that the blue- 

 fin move offshore from the area of 

 the traps to spawn (see Section VI), 

 and the use of pelagic gears to in- 

 crease the catch had been advocated 

 many years ago (Scordia 1942). 



The average weight and size 

 composition data provided b>' Arena 

 confirm the indications, also noted in 

 the average weights of the trap 

 catches, that there was a substantial 

 recruitment of younger fish to the 

 central Mediterranean spawning stock 

 in 1975. The size composition data 

 suggests a strong influx offish in the 

 40 to 1 00 kg class in that year. This is 

 most encouraging, but whether the 

 stock can withstand the massive im- 

 pact of the new seine fishery remains 

 to be seen. 



As noted above, Paini (1975) re- 

 ported that the large seiners, after 

 completing their fishing in the 

 Tyrrhenian Sea and the Sicilian Chan- 

 nel, moved north to fish small tuna 

 and aibacore. P. Arena (personal 

 communication ) advised us that sein- 

 ers had taken about 2.600 tons of 

 bluefm weighing from 10 to 100 kg 

 in the northern Tyrrhenian and 

 Ligurian Seas in September and Oc- 

 tober 1976. Thus very heavy pres- 

 sure is also being put on the stock of 

 young fish just as it appeared to be 

 furnishing urgently needed recruit- 



ment to the spawning stock of large 

 bluefin. 



Although Ninni (1921a) and 

 Scordia (1939) had reported occur- 

 rences of bluefin tuna off the Italian 

 Adriatic coast near Venice and near 

 Manfredonia and Molfetta, respec- 

 tively, it was not until 1950 that an 

 Italian Adriatic tuna fishery was ini- 

 tiated (Scaccini and Biancaiana 

 1959). This purse seine fishery has 

 been described by Levi (1977). The 

 season extended from the end of 

 March to mid-November, and the 

 tlshing area covered most of the coast 

 between Barletta and Trieste (Fig- 

 ure 58). The most successful fishing 

 occured in March-April off Pescara 

 and Punta Penna, in the central 

 Adriatic, for fish between 10 and 50 

 kg and in August-October, to the 

 north, off Porto Garibaldi and 

 Cattolica-Cesenatico for 6 to 10 kg 

 fish. The fishing originally took place 

 about 15 miles (24 km) or less from 

 the coast, but this distance has gradu- 

 ally increased to 30-40 miles (48-64 

 km). The yearly catches have varied 

 between 83 and 434 tons, with an 

 average of 186 tons, from 1955 

 through 1971. Levi (1977) reported 

 that two of the larger and more mod- 

 ern Italian seiners had entered the 

 Adriatic fishery in 1976. P. Arena 

 (personal communication) advised us 

 that the 1976 Italian seine catch in 

 the Adriatic had reached about 1 ,000 

 tons in October 



Hook and line fisheries have ex- 

 isted in several parts of the central 

 Mediterranean, but the most impor- 

 tant was in the Strait of Messina. 

 Scordia(1931, 1932, 1934, 1935)and 

 Genovese ( 1 965) have described this 

 fishery, which embraced two distinct 

 seasons. The fall-winter fishery (Sep- 

 tember-March) occurred in the north- 

 em part of the Strait of Messina, and 

 took small or medium sized fish be- 

 tween spawning seasons. TTie sum- 

 mer (late June- August) fishery oc- 

 curred in the southern part of the 

 Strait, and took giant fish which were 

 maturing or recently spent. Scordia 

 believed that the winter fish came 

 from the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the 

 summer ones from the Ionian. She 

 provided extensive data on the 

 catches for 1 928- 1 935. Genovese pre- 

 sented the size composition, by 



59 



