The BCF Laboratory in Honolulu was the site of the first 

 portion of the conference. Several of the members of the 

 staff participated, as did representatives of the University 

 of Hawaii, the Hawaii Division of Fish and Game, and scien- 

 tists from the mainland United States. 



The Hawaiian Aku Fishery 



Two-thirds of the present population of Hawaii had not 

 been born when the first of the still-operating aku boats 

 entered the fleet. This craft, the sturdy old Sunfish, was 

 contracted in 1926, says Richard N. Uchida. And more 

 than 20 percent of the population of Honolulu has been born 

 since the most recent aku boat, the Angel, was built in 1955. 

 The Sun fish and mo.st of the other vessels built before World 

 War n are relatively small. Uchida chooses as the dividing 

 line between small and large vessels a value of 800-gallon 

 baitwell capacity, for the ships able to carry more bait are 

 able to catch more fish. In those terms, only 3 of the 17 

 prewar vessels can be classified as large; 11 of the 13 con- 

 structed since World War II are large. 



Statistics on the Hawaiian skipjack tuna catch go back 

 to 1928, but those acquired since 1948 appear to be the most 

 trustworthy; Uchida has used them in his various studies 

 of the industry. They show wide fluctuations in the catch, 

 from about 3,000 tons in 1957 to 8,000 in 1965. Monthly 

 averages, on the other hand, very less. In any year, good or 

 bad, the largest catches were made in the summer, and in 

 only 5 years from 1952 to 1964 did July fail to bring the 

 peak catch. In those few exceptional years, the top month 

 was either June or August. 



The skipjack tuna catch usually is about 60 percent in 

 weight and 40 percent in value of the State's annual landings 

 of fish and shellfish. Only the skipjack tuna catch provides 

 Hawaii with a marine product of any consequence for export 

 to the mainland ; this is an important consideration in the 

 thinking of busine.'^s and government in considering how 



the State's marine resources are to be utilized. If the skip- 

 jack tuna industry can be expanded, a ready market exists 

 for the product; the same does not now hold true for the 

 other fisheries. 



About 75 percent of the skipjack tuna are taken within 20 

 miles of the main islands, principally Oahu, Uchida says 

 (fig. 4). In a good fishing year, such as 1959, this inshore 

 area alone will produce as much fish as can be caught both 

 inshore and offshore in ordinary years. There are several 

 reasons for the predominance of, and reliance on, the inshore 

 area. Some reasons are biological, some economic, and one, 

 at least, a matter of topography. The biological reason is 

 that the preferred baitfish, the tiny silver nehu, upon which 

 the fi.^hery heavily depends, is a frail and short-lived creature 

 when it is taken from its brackish water habitat and trans- 

 ported to the open sea. Dead bait is no good in a live-bait 

 fishery ; the vessel is at a disadvantage if it does not use up 

 the bait close to the baiting grounds (fig. 5). Economically, 

 it obviously costs more to keep the vessels at sea long enough 

 to reach the offshore areas ; increased catches may be offset 

 by higher running costs. Finally, in Pearl Harbor and Kane- 

 ohe Bay, the island of Oahu simply has baiting grounds more 

 productive than those of the other islands. Kauai, for 

 example, has no baiting ground as reliable as either of those 

 on Oahu. 



For their data on the eflfectiveness of fishing trips, scien- 

 tists rely on returns made by the skippers to the Hawaii 

 Division of Fish and Game. These reports divide the inshore 

 and offshore grounds into numbered statistical areas. The 

 skipper enters the amount of fish he caught in a particular 

 area (the area is always large enough, by the way, to pre- 

 vent his competitors from actually pinpointing his fishing 

 ground). For some years, the Division did not request the 

 skippers to note the trips on which they failed to catch 

 fish ; this important statistic will be available in the future, 

 for the forms have been revised. Uchida savs that these 



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