The skipjack tuna vessels spend almost as much of their 

 time at sea in catching bait as they do in scouting and 

 fishing for tuna. They do not go to sea daily. In 1960-65, 

 the small ve.ssels averaged about 100 trips per year; large 

 vessels made fewer trips. Weather plays an important part 

 in determining whether the boats fish ; a stormy period can 

 keep them tied up for days on end. 



The number of fish present in a body of water larger than 

 a small fishbowl can rarely be counted exactly. The most 

 readily available indicator of the number in the ocean con- 

 sists of statistics from the catch. These records must be 

 refined, however, before the scientist can estimate avail- 

 ability and abundance. As a first step toward an estimate 

 of apparent abundance, Uchida converted all his catch and 

 effort data to a standard term, a single 1-day trip by a 

 large vessel. These figures suggest that during 1952-64, 

 the years of his study, availability varied considerably in 

 the Hawaiian area,' from a low of about 5,000 pounds per 

 trip in 1958 to a high of more than 7,000 pounds in the next 

 season. Standard fishing trips declined slightly in the early 

 years and leveled off at about 1,600 trips in 1959-64. From 

 his figures, Uchida concluded that the skipjack tuna fishery 

 itself is not seriously affecting the abundance of the species 

 in Hawaiian waters : Changes in abundance are due to varia- 

 tion in the availability and behavior of the fish on the 

 fishing grounds; the strength of the various year classes 

 may also be important. In his most recent study, Uchida has 

 .scrutinized the striking differences between offshore and 

 inshore catches. He has been able to document the fact 

 that the offshore grounds are the more productive. Larger 

 and faster biting skipjack tuna were found farther from the 

 islands, and these profitable fish stayed near the vessel 

 longer, allowing larger catches. Whether the Hawaiian skip- 

 jack tuna fleet would profit by attempting to spend more 

 time offshore poses economic problems, however. 



The Hawaiian Longline Fishery 



The last weeks of December see a striking upsurge in 

 fish landings in Honolulu. Sashimi — sliced raw fish — is a 

 favorite holiday delicacy in Hawaii, and the fishermen work 

 long hours attempting to satisfy the market. Retail prices 

 for the tuna shoot up ; the best fresh fish sell for considerably 

 more than filet mignon. 



Most of this fish is supplied by the longline fleet (fig. 7). 

 Two species provide the bulk of the tuna catch by longline — 

 the bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna. December is the peak 

 month for the bigeye tuna catch. A sharp slump in January 

 possibly is induced by the long early-January holiday that 

 is traditional in the longline fleet. And in December, yellow- 

 fin tuna catches are higher than at any other time of the 

 year except the very peak of the season, June and July. 



In an average year, the longline fleet lands between 900 

 and 2,200 tons of tunas and billfishes (average yield of the 

 pole-and-line fishery for skipjack tuna is about 5,000 tons, 

 it will be remembered). In terms of dollars to the fishermen, 

 however, the longline fishery means more than is evident 

 from the figures of the catch, for it takes premium fish. 

 Thus in the 15 years 1950-64. the auction price of bigeye 

 tuna was never lower than 30 cents a pound and rose to 

 almost 60 cents in 1964; this latter is 4 times the average 

 United States-Japan price for tuna and 12 times the average 

 world price for marine fish. Yellowfin tuna prices rose also, 

 though not as spectacularly, going from about 30 cents to 

 about 38, said Thomas S. Hida, who prepared an analysis of 

 the longline fishery for the Governor's Conference. Skipjack 

 tuna prices in Hawaii have stayed at about 10 to 12 cents 

 a pound for fish sold to the cannery; prices for fish sold in 

 the fresh fish market are higher. 



It was a Japanese immigrant named Imose who introduced 

 the Japanese method of longline fishing to the Hawaiian 

 Islands in 1917. Fishing a few miles from Honolulu, he was 



14 



