FISHING THE PACIFIC 



phy, as well as to try to find out more about the big and small 

 game fish that are so abundant off the coasts of these wonder- 

 ful countries. During the first two weeks of March, 1953, 

 many striped marlin and Pacific sailfish were caught off Ecua- 

 dor, and a 550-pound black marlin was picked up, which 

 was unusual so early in the year. 



Four vessels comprised the expedition's fleet. Two were 

 large Diesel-powered fish boats, the third was an ocean-going 

 motor sailer to live on, and the fourth was the laboratory 

 ship, the Marise, which had been used often before by Yale 

 scientists, and was a converted 6 5 -foot dragger out of Ston- 

 ington, Connecticut. Her captain was Harold McLaughlin 

 of Mystic, Connecticut, and he is a real Mystic-er. Coming 

 north on the way home, he ran that dragger from Cristobal to 

 Miami in six days, then stuck her in the Gulf Stream, and 

 believe it or not was back in Stonington five and a half days 

 later— a typical American commercial fisherman's trip. 



Dan Merriman, Director of the Bingham Oceanographic 

 Laboratory at Yale, headed the scientists, who included Ed- 

 ward C. Migdalski, preparator; James E. Morrow, ichthyolo- 

 gist; Gerald S. Posner, marine biologist, who had charge of 

 the oceanographic work; and Sarah B. Wheatland, research 

 assistant. Lt. Commander Jose Barandarian, of the Peruvian 

 Hydrographic Service, was with the expedition in the waters 

 off his country's coast, and Enrique Avila, crack Peruvian 

 ornithologist, who is with the Guano Company at Lima, as 

 well as Dr. FeHpe Ancieta, of the Peruvian Fisli and Game 

 Department, gave much help. 



The oceanographic group consider themselves extremely 

 lucky, for they arrived at Cabo Blanco to find that the El 



196 



