undertook to collect and dissect specimens in order to obtain material for 

 study. Two specimens were collected and the dissected material sent to 

 Massachusetts. 



Observations on whales, incidental to the billfish work, were conducted 

 on several occasions. The only species positively identified was the sperm 

 whale which appeared to be rather abundant off Chilean waters. 



C O M ^I E II C; I A 1. F I !^ II E K Y S IJ R V E Y 



General 



Acknowledgement is gratefully accorded to the various government agencies 

 and commercial fishery operators for the data and statistics on commercial 

 fisheries which have been used in compiling this report. 



THE MAJOR SEA fisheries from Chile to Panama are for the tunas, which 

 are found during every month of the year. Billfishes are also caught 

 in some quantity and swordfish account for nearly 80% of the billfish catch 

 in the area from northern Chile to southern Ecuador. This area now ranks 

 third in the world's production of billfish, after Japan and its mandated 

 islands, and the northwestern Atlantic from Cuba to Nova Scotia. 



In northern Chile the billfishery has provided fish for local consumption 

 for over half a century but no serious attempt has been made to export 

 outside of minor quantities to a few neighboring countries and a small 

 amount picked up at sea by an occasional refrigerator ship from the United 

 States. 



In Peru, commercial swordfishing started in the last years of World War 

 II when the loss of the Japanese supply encouraged American fishing in- 

 terests to search for new sources. American tuna vessels had reported large 

 schools of swordfish off the northwestern coast of Peru for many years, and 

 the first organized fishery was established at Mancora and Paita soon after 

 the end of the war. No local industry had ever been built up, as in Chile, 

 because the native fishermen have a superstition against eating the flesh 

 of swordfish. 



The Wilbur-Ellis Company of San Francisco has pioneered the Peruvian 

 swordfishing, along with their tuna operation, and have been very success- 

 ful. Modern harpooning methods and equipment are used and their rate of 

 catch per man-boat for the number of fish seen is vastly higher than in 

 Chile, where an older method is used. 



The entire swordfish catch of Peru is exported, principally to the United 

 States, either unprocessed or as steaks and fillets, by refrigerated vessels. 

 A fair amount of black and striped marlin are harpooned each year, along 



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