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I V . C . 1 . Suggested Approach and Methods 



1) The assessment of the bill fish stocks was based on 

 various assumed stock structures and computed measures of effective fishing 

 effort, a statistic which is assumed to be proportional to fishing 

 mortality. These assumptions are difficult to test and verify. Computer 

 simulations to examine the sensitivity of stock assessment conclusions to 

 changes in assumptions should be carried out. 



2) While tagging experiments provide some of the 

 necessary information on stock structure, the low catch rates of marl ins in 

 commercial and recreational fisheries suggest that other techniques are 

 probably more suitable, e.g., immunogenetic methods. 



IV. D. Status of SWFC Data Base 



The data base maintained at the Honolulu Laboratory includes 

 bill fish catch and effort data from the Japanese and Taiwan lonqline 

 fisheries in the Pacific. The longline operations of Korea, however, are 

 poorly documented. 



All nations with bill fish fisheries should be urged to update or 

 establish sampling programs to insure the collection of adequate 

 statistics, including 1) total catch by species, gear, type of fishing 

 operation, and ocean region; 2) total nominal effort by gear, type of 

 fishing operation, and ocean region; 3) catch-per-unit-effort by effort, 

 small area-time strata, gear, and type of fishing operations; and 4) size 

 and sex composition of the catches by species and by small area-time 

 strata. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Huang, H. C. 



1974. Bill fish fishery of Taiwan. In R. S., Shomura and 

 F. William (editors). Proceedings of tWe International Billfish 

 Symposium, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 9-12 August 1972, Part 2. Review and 

 Contributed papers, p. 332-335. U.S. Commer., HOAA Tech. Rep. 

 NMFS SSRF-675. 



June, F.C. 



1950. Preliminary fisheries survey of the Hawaiian-Line Islands 

 area. Part. I. The Hawaiian long-line fishery. Commer. Fish. Rev. 

 12(l):l-23. 



