A new use for this oil enabled Kato to reactivate 

 the fishery in 1967, however: shark liver oil contains 25 

 to 60 percent of squalene. a hydrocarbon which yields, 

 on hydrogenation, a colorless, odorless oil valuable in 

 cosmetics and much in demand in Japan. 



Several vessels, used during the summer for the 

 harpoon fishery for swordfish, have turned in the winter 

 to harpooning basking sharks after contact was estab- 

 lished between them and Japanese importers of squalene. 

 Nearly 30 tons of liver were shipped in the initial con- 



signment in April 1968 -the product of sLx small 

 vessels. 



Other activities by Kato and Green on this project 

 include the investigation of the possibility that the same 

 swordfish vessels might change their gear from harpoons 

 to small floating longlines in their summer fishing for 

 broadbill swordfish. They are also investigating the pan- 

 dalid shrimp resources off southern California in canyon 

 and slope areas with lines of shrimp traps. 



SENIOR SCIENTISTS UNIT 



E.H. Ahlstrom has been heavily occupied with the 

 identification of fish larvae from the EASTROPAC sam- 

 ples and has completed work on one survey and two 

 monitoring cruises; in these studies he is collaborating 

 with W.L. Klawe of lATTC who is studying the ecology 

 of tuna larvae. He has also devoted almost half his time 

 to work on various manuscripts of research, review, and 

 conference papers. 



This work on EASTROPAC complements and sup- 

 plements the studies of fish eggs and larvae of the Cali- 

 fornia Current. With few exceptions, the same major 

 groups of fishes are represented in CalCOFI and EAS- 

 TROPAC collections-in offshore waters: scombroids, 

 Coryphaena. myctophids, gonostomatids, bramids, me- 



lamphaeids. paralepidids, bathylagids and nearer 



the coast: flatfish, scorpaenids, labrids, serranids, clu- 



peids, engraulids, sciaenids, pomacentrids In fact, 



a number of the tropical species of wide distribution in 



EASTROPAC collections also occur in the southern ^art 

 of the CalCOFI pattern off central and southern Baja 

 California, and a few of the hardier species, such as 

 Vincigueiria lucetia and Diogenichthys latermtus, even 

 push as far north as California. 



H.G. Moser has continued his work on the descrip- 

 tion of myctophid larvae and on the distribution and re- 

 production of rockfishes (Sebastodes spp.y, which are a 

 commercially important element of the fish fauna in the 

 California Current. He participated in a cruise oi Miss 

 Behavior to the Gulf of California in December 1967, 

 during which an undescribed species of Sebastodes was 

 taken. Since many species of this group are viviparous, 

 the identity of larvae taken in plankton nets may be re- 

 solved by reference to larvae taken from adult females of 

 known species; Moser has been describing the larvae of 

 many Sebastodes species in this manner. 



29 



