GENERAL REPORT 



Introduction 



The Symposium was sponsored by the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. 

 Department of Commerce, and was held at Kailua- 

 Kona, Hawaii, from 9 to 12 August 1972. The Sym- 

 posium was cosponsored by the County of Hawaii, the 

 Hawaii State Division of Fish and Game, the Marine 

 Affairs Coordinator of the State of Hawaii, and the 

 Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT). 

 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United 

 Nations (FAO) also actively supported the Sym- 

 posium. 



Background 



Since the mid-1960's the pelagic waters of the 

 world's oceans extending from about lat. 40°N to 40°S 

 have been fished with longline gear for fish species of 

 commercial importance. The principal species sought 

 have been the tunas; thus, these pelagic fishes have 

 received considerable attention from biologists and 

 fishery administrators. Tunas have been the subject 

 of discussions at the Scientific Meeting on the Biology 

 of Tunas and Related Species held in La Jolla, Calif., 

 2-14 July 1962; the Symposium on Scombroid Fishes 

 held in Mandapam Camp, India, 12-15 January 1962; 

 and the Governor's Conference on Central Pacific 

 Fishery Resources held in Hawaii, 28 February-12 

 March 1966. Further, those tuna species of commer- 

 cial importance have been the focus of attention in re- 

 cent years and have been the subject of review at an- 

 nual international meetings, e.g., Inter-American 

 Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and Inter- 

 national Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic 

 Tunas (ICCAT), and domestic meetings, e.g., Pacific 

 Tuna Conferences. 



Unlike the tunas, the other major group of pelagic 

 fishes taken by longline gear — the billfishes — has 

 received very little attention. The relatively large size 

 attained and the difficulty in obtaining adequate 

 numbers of specimens for examination have kept our 

 knowledge of billfishes to a low level. Studies under- 

 taken by individual scientists have been based on few 

 specimens, specimens principally collected at the 

 centers of sport fisheries. Access to data and 

 specimens collected by the extensive longline fisheries 

 has been limited primarily because the accom- 

 modations aboard commercial longline vessels are 

 limited and fishing trips generally extend over periods 

 of several months. The principal reason for this 

 restricted information, however, has been the lack of 

 urgency and priority expressed by administrators of 

 the major fishing countries. 



During the past 5 or 6 yr the need to assess the 

 status of stocks of the various species of the billfishes 

 has become apparent. This has been reflected in the 



concern expressed by sport fishermen throughout the 

 world regarding the declining catches of billfishes and 

 the increased importance of billfishes noted by the 

 commercial interests. The sport fishery catch rates of 

 sailfish in the Pacific waters off Mexico have declined 

 dramatically in the last decade. This decline has been 

 attributed to the intensive longline fishery which 

 started in 1963. 



In 1970, NMFS held a workshop at the Tiburon 

 Fisheries Laboratory to: 1) review briefly the available 

 background knowledge of billfish biology, 2) evaluate 

 data relating to the assessment of billfish resources, 

 and 3) explore the types of cooperative research need- 

 ed in order to accomplish objectives outlined in 1) and 

 2). 



In order to highlight their importance, a special ses- 

 sion on billfishes was held at the 22d Tuna Conference 

 (October 1971) at Lake Arrowhead, Calif. At the con- 

 ference a series of papers presented on billfishes again 

 reiterated the need for a major symposium to bring 

 together all known information on the subject. 



On the basis of these preliminary meetings, NMFS 

 decided to sponsor an international billfish sym- 

 posium. This was to be the first major symposium 

 organized by the newly created NMFS. In selecting a 

 location for the symposium, the organization com- 

 mittee decided to hold it in conjunction with the 

 HIBT, which is held annually at Kailua-Kona, 

 Hawaii. This joint arrangement had the advantages of 

 1 ) having available at the symposium sport fishermen 

 from a number of countries, and 2) permitting billfish 

 specimens to be made available to scientists for 

 research purposes. 



Opening Session 



Mr. Richard S. Shomura, Cochairman of the 

 Symposium, called the meeting to order and in- 

 troduced the Honorable Shunichi Kimura, Mayor of 

 the County of Hawaii. Mayor Kimura in his address 1 

 welcomed the Symposium participants to the Island 

 of Hawaii. He stressed that in developing the islands' 

 resources there is a need for a well balanced mix of in- 

 digenous basic industries and scientific research in 

 complementary disciplines. Mayor Kimura men- 

 tioned how appropriate in this respect were some of 

 the research projects located on Hawaii, such as those 

 in tropical agriculture, astronomy, geothermal energy, 

 volcanology, and atmospheric sciences. He was 

 delighted that fisheries expertise, in the form of the 

 Symposium and its participants, had come to Kailua- 

 Kona where sport fishing, especially the annual 

 HIBT, is such a valuable part of the recreational and 

 tourist activities. 



Mr. Shomura then introduced Mr. Philip M. 

 Roedel, Director, NMFS. Mr. Roedel, in his opening 



'See Annex 2. 



