The Japanese longline fishery en- 

 tered the Mediterranean in 1 972, tak- 

 ing 459 bluefin between IO°E longi- 

 tude and 20°E longitude. Its catches 

 in this area increased to 748 fish in 

 1973 and 4,914 in 1974 (Fisheries 

 Agency of Japan 1973, 1974, 1975). 

 Assuming that the weight of these 

 fish was the same as the average for 

 the entire Mediterranean, the cor- 

 responding tonnages would be about 

 74 in 1972, 156 in 1973, and 835 in 

 1974. The numbers offish taken in 

 1975 are not available, but the total 

 Japanese Mediterranean catch de- 

 clined from 2,192 tons in 1974 to 

 1,100 tons in 1975, because of con- 

 servation measures (Kume 1976). 

 The largest catches were taken south 

 of latitude 40°N in May and June, 

 corresponding to the "arrival" run of 

 maturing bluefin in the area. Catch 

 rates, in fish per thousand hooks, var- 

 ied from to 12.8 in May, 7.8 to 14.6 

 in June, and to 19.5 in July. Thus 

 the most consistent catch rates were 

 obtained in June, during the arrival 

 run when the maturing bluefin are 

 believed to be reluctant to feed (see 

 Section VI). The highest catch rates, 

 14.6 and 19.5 fish per thousand 

 hooks, were obtained in the Ionian 

 Sea in June and July, respectively. 



Sport fishing for small bluefin 

 tuna and albacore ( Thunmis alalimga) 

 in the Ligurian Sea was initiated by 

 French and Italian anglers in 1962 

 and 1963. This fishery was very suc- 

 cessful in the years 1964-1968, with 

 daily catches in 1964 averaging 30 

 timas a day for a well crewed boat 

 with expert anglers. This average de- 

 clined to in 1971, reportedly be- 

 cause of heavy fishing by Sicilian 

 and French seiners in 1968-1971. 



Some improvement in the fish- 

 ing was noted in 1972 and 1973, af- 

 ter the seiners had left the area. The 

 schools were much less numerous 

 than before the seining, however, and 

 were present for a much smaller por- 

 tion of the year (Cesareo 1973,"A.C." 

 personal communication). This im- 

 provement has evidently continued; 

 nine boats took 680 kg of bluefin and 

 albacore in a day and a half in a 

 tournament off San Remo, Italy, in 

 September 1975 (di Sant' Ignazio 

 1975). Friction between seiners and 

 recreational fishermen was also men- 



Table 15. Catch data for the Italian purse seine fishery in the southeastern 

 Tyrrhenian Sea and the Sicilian Channel (Miyake 1976, P. Arena, personal 

 communication). 



tioned in this report. Cesareo ( 1 974b) 

 stated that there had always been gi- 

 ant bluefin along the Italian Adriatic 

 coast from the delta of the Po south- 

 ward, from Punta Pila to Porto Corsini 

 (Figure 58). They were especially 

 numerous in 1968-1970. Catches 

 were scarce, however, because of the 

 lack of sport fishing effort. Cesareo's 

 comments were in response to a let- 

 ter from a sportsman who reported 

 the capture of a giant fish weighing 

 176 kg off Punta Pila in 1974, and 

 recalled taking one weighing 1 52 kg 

 in the same area in 1971. 



Scaccini (1961) discussed the 

 distribution of young bluefin tuna in 

 the Adriatic in relation to physical, 

 chemical and dynamic conditions of 

 the environment (Figure 58). Very 

 small fish (11-20 cm. 40-100 g) oc- 

 curred in summer close to the coast 

 from north of Rimini to Ancona over 

 sandy bottom. Fish 40-60 cm long 

 (3-5 kg) and larger ones 10-12 kg 

 and up to 1 m long were fished by 

 seine from April to September in the 

 north Adriatic from the mouths of 

 the Po to just north of Ancona, al- 

 ways from 6-7 to 12 miles offshore. 



On the other hand fish of the same 

 size were found from one half to five 

 miles off the coast in very shallow 

 water in the middle Adriatic between 

 San Benedetto de Tronto and the 

 Gargano promontory. They also oc- 

 curred in the mid-Adriatic, always 

 on the surface, north of the island of 

 Pianosa over the trench of Porno. 

 Bluefin of 30-70 kg and more than a 

 meter long, rare in the western 

 Adriatic, were caught habitually in 

 the eastern Adriatic, and in summer 

 and early fall north of the mouths of 

 the Po near Venice. Scaccini showed 

 that this apparently strange pattern 

 was based on currents whose waters 

 were more favorable than the sur- 

 rounding ones for the tuna of the 

 sizes in question. 



The oldest bluefin tuna fishery 

 in the Adriatic is by traps situated 

 along the northern coasts of Yugo- 

 slavia and the adjacent islands. As 

 elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the 

 number of traps fishing off Yugosla- 

 via has decreased greatly. Whereas 

 Parona (1919) listed 38 active em- 

 placements, only 21 existed in 1957 

 and 17 in 1958-1959 (Belloc 1961). 



Table 16. Size data for catches of the Italian purse seine fishery inthesoutheastem 

 Tyrrhenian Sea (P. Arena, personal communication). 



