FISHING THE PACIFIC 



good black marlin run and it was due to his success in that 

 period that I scheduled Tony Hulman for February, 1952, 

 thirteen years later. Mr. Seeley never trolled a bait and had no 

 outrigger— which goes to prove that they are dispensable in 

 these waters. 



Hearing about Mr. Seeley's success off Cabo Blanco, the 

 late Daulton Mann, one of this country's leading steamship 

 executives, a vice-president of the Grace Line, ordered for 

 Cabo Blanco grounds two duplicates of the Elco Fishing 

 Cruisers built for use off Tocopilla, Chile. They were de- 

 livered in April, 1940, and Michael Lerner, heading his first 

 American Museum of Natural History Expedition to Peru, 

 made use of them. 



Lerner had Captain Douglas Osborn and the late Captain 

 Bill Hatch of Miami as guides— but in that month he saw 

 very few black marlin and none of them would strike. He 

 did see a great many broadbill swordfish, however, but they 

 also refused to take the bait. Then, being his usual resourceful 

 and courageous self, Mike began to make wide sweeps off- 

 shore, staying out three and four days at a time, sixty or 

 seventy miles offshore in a 30-foot boat. Not only did he find 

 broadbill that would strike but he succeeded in catching the 

 first and only ones caught off Peru— a 638- and a 384-pounder 

 —until Enrique Pardo was to catch a couple in 1949. 



Lerner's successful swordfish catch opened the eyes of the 

 commercial fishermen to the broadbill fishing and today there 

 are fleets of as many as twenty-five or thirty boats bringing in 

 swordfish from Paita to Mancora, and Mancora has become 

 the Gloucester of Peru through Lerner's efforts. All of which 

 meant much to Peru. 



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