so successful that his technique was rapidly adopted by other 

 fishermen. Although from the beginning the most important 

 species caught have been the yellowfin and bigeye tunas, 

 some albacore and several of the billfishes are also taken. 

 The tunas and most of the billfishes are consumed fresh. 

 Some of the larger Pacific blue marlin, however, are used in 

 the manufacture of "kamaboko" (fishcake). 



Like the aku fleet, the longline fleet is suffering from 

 attrition. There were 59 vessels in 1948, but only 30 in 1966. 

 The number of fishermen has declined from 190 to 87. 



Although their trips may last several days, most of the 

 longliners fish within sight of the islands. The Laboratory 

 in Honolulu has provided instruction and advice in naviga- 

 tion to some of the skippers to encourage them to try their 

 hand at longer trips. These few vessels, fishing several 

 hundred miles from the islands, have had encouragingly 

 high catch rates. 



But the bulk of the fishery, near the islands, is not doing 

 well. The years 1954-65, Hida said, saw a steady decline in 

 the number of bigeye tuna landed ; as the yellowfin tuna 

 catch remained almost steady, this drop has meant that total 

 landings of the tunas have decreased, and rather sharply. 



The fish taken by the longlines are large. Average weights 

 of bigeye and yellowfin tuna landed in the Hawaiian area 

 have fluctuated between 135 and 170 pounds. Bigeye tuna 

 are caught most plentifully in winter and spring, yellowfin 

 tuna in summer. The most heavily fished areas are those 

 close to the principal ports. 



Fishes other than tunas are taken commercially in Hawai- 

 ian waters, of course, but these fish are essentially near 

 shore resources. The tunas constitute the only high-seas 

 resource harvested at present. Of the tunas, the skipjack, 

 is taken in the greatest numbers and in the greatest tonnage. 



The high seas around the Hawaiian Lslands have appar- 

 ently provided excellent fishing grounds for the Japanese 

 longline fleet but have been fished rarely by American ves- 



FIGURE 7. Characteristic of the Hawaiian longline fleet ore the gloss 

 fishing floots which buoy the lines ond the stout bomboo poles which 

 mark the junction of two of the lines. Topped with flogs, these poles 

 help locote the line, the longline fleet in Kfowoii is sometimes colled 

 the "flagline" fleet. 



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