INTRODUCTION 



This report deals with research results achieved by the 

 BCF (Bureau of Commercial Fisheries) Biological Labora- 

 tory in Honolulu from July 1, 1965, to December 31, 1066. 

 Highlights of the reporting period include: 



1. A conference called by the Governor of the State of 

 Hawaii which resulted in the first numerical estimates of the 

 size of the unfished stock of skipjack tunas of the central 

 Pacific. Estimates arrived at by different methods vary in 

 detail but agree that the present U. S. catch of skipjack tuna 

 (about 70,000 tons a year) could be doubled — or far more 

 than doubled. These findings have lent new impetus to 

 research on methods of improving and expanding the Hawai- 

 ian tuna fishery. 



4. Use of a two-man submarine, Ashrrah, in pioneering 

 studies off the coast of Oahu. This small vehicle gave fishery 

 biologists an opportunity to observe directly the life of the 

 depths. Among the things they saw were precious red coral 

 growing on the underwater slopes of Oahu, lobsters larger 

 than those now harvested by the Hawaiian fishery, and 

 skipjack tuna feeding at a depth of 500 feet. 



5. Investigations of the behavior and subsurface distri- 

 bution of the tunas of the Hawaiian waters by use of a new 

 continuous-transmission, frequency-modulated sonar aboard 

 the research vessel Tonnisend CromwcU. Scientists have 

 been able to study subsurface tuna schools at considerable 

 distances from the ship — as far as 715 yards, or about half 

 a mile. 



2. l<'irming up of plans for Project Porpoise, a multi- 

 disciplinary investigation of the oceanography, meteorology, 

 fishery biology, and ornithology of the central Pacific Ocean 

 from the Equator to hit. 30" N. Field work on the project 

 is scheduled to begin in the fall of 1968. 



3. Discovery that the apparently chaotic currents off 

 the western coast of the island of Hawaii can be explained 

 in terfhs of a law of hydrodynamics discovered by the scien- 

 tist Theodore von Karman early in this century. This 

 investigation has led to the conjecture that the rich fishing 

 grounds on the coast of Japan may be explained by a similar 

 phenomenon. 



6. The first meeting on American soil of the Indo-Pacific 

 Fisheries Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization 

 of the United Nations. 



In terms of scientific publications, the period was un- 

 commonly productive. At the end of 1966, members of the 

 staff of the Laboratory in Honolulu had published 56 papers, 

 and 33 more were in press. Two of these publications were 

 books. The Proceedings of the Governor's Conference on 

 Central Pacific Fishery Resources was published late in 1966 

 by the State of Hawaii. The Oceanographic Atlas of the 

 Pacific Ocean was in press, having been accepted for jiubli- 

 cation by the University of Hawaii Press. 



