a\hicore( Thiuinus uhilunga), taken by both the United 

 States and Japan; bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), heavily 

 fished by Japan and taken in small amounts by the Hawaiian 

 longline fleet; bluefin tuna (Thunnus thijnnus), taken by the 

 California purse seine fishery, but more heavily fished by 

 Japan; the skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), fished by 

 both countries, with Japan landing about twice as much as 

 the United States; and the yellowfin tuna (Thunnus alba- 

 cares), also fished by both countries, with the Japanese 

 catch again much larger than that of the United States. 

 In 1965, skipjack tuna made slightly the largest contribution 

 to the catch in weight ; the U. S. and Japanese total amounted 

 to 200,200 tons. Yellowfin tuna approached this figure; blue- 

 fin tuna, albacore, and bigeye tuna were caught in succes- 

 sively smaller quantities. The bigeye tuna catch, the small- 

 est, and almost exclusively Japanese, amounted to 119,300 

 tons (fig. 1). 



Because of their commercial importance, these species 

 have commanded the interest of fishery scientists for several 

 decades. There are four principal centers for research on 

 Pacific tunas. Two of them, located in San Diego, Calif., are 

 the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission and the BCF 

 Tuna Resources Laboratory. Both are concerned primarily 

 with the tunas of the eastern Pacific. In Japan, a nation 

 which has been a leader in fishery research for many years, 

 the work on high-seas resources has recently been consoli- 

 dated in a new laboratory located in the historic city of 

 Shimizu, famed in Japanese culture for the superb views it 

 affords of Mount Fuji. The staff of the famous Nankai 

 Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory, Japan's chief center 

 for research on tunas of the high seas, will be transferred 

 there. 



In the central Pacific is the BCF Biological Laboratory, 

 Honolulu. Founded by Public Law 329, 80th Congress 

 (1947), this Laboratory (formerly called the Pacific Oceanic 



Fishery Investigations) by statute has as its mission the 

 conduct of studies to ensure the maximum development and 

 utilization of the high-seas fishery resources of the United 

 States in the tropical and subtropical Pacific Ocean. Much 

 of the early work of the Laboratory was dictated by the 

 general lack of knowledge of the tropical Pacific and the 

 main fishery resources — the tunas — of the area. According 

 to John C. Marr, the present Director: 



The work was characterized by the study of the 

 resources in relation to their environment. Results 

 included the discovery of skipjack resources in the 

 Marquesas Islands area (as yet unexploited), the 

 discovery of yellowfin tuna resources in the equa- 

 torial Pacific (subsequently exploited by Japanese 

 fishermen, but not by U. S. fishermen, for economic 

 reasons), understanding of the equatorial current 

 systems, including the discovery of the Cromwell 

 Current, description of many features of the biology 

 of the tunas, including establishing the transpacific 

 migrations of North Pacific albacore, and some 

 understanding of the relation between the distribu- 

 tion and abundance of the tunas in relation to the 

 circulation of the Pacific. Progress in the general 

 descriptive studies has led to the identification of 

 more specific problems around which the work of 

 the Laboratory is now oriented. 



These more specific problems, during the period July 1, 

 1965, to December 31, 1966 were: investigations of the 

 oceanography of the Pacific, studies of the ecology of the 

 skipjack and yellowfin tunas and the albacore, research on 

 subpopulations of Pacific tunas, investigations of the be- 

 havior and physiology of tunas, inquiries into the use of 

 submersible vehicles for fishery and oceanography research, 

 and — a special mission now drawing to its end — studies of 

 the tunas of the Indian Ocean. 



