FIGURE 8. The great Colifornia-bosed tuno fleet depends mostly on 

 surloce cought yellowtin and skipjock tunas token along the coasts of 

 the Americos as far south as northern Chile i darker shading). A 

 recent development has been fishing by Japanese longlincrs for 

 yellowfin ond bigeyc tunas in the eostern Pocific ilighter shodingl. 



sels. With current techniques and gear, longlines have 

 proved the only effective method of harvest and longlines 

 cost more in manpower than is profitable with present 

 American wage scales. 



This situation presents some obvious questions; the one 

 of chief interest in Hawaii is this: Is the skipjack tuna 

 fishery capable of expansion? The Governor's Conference 

 sifted the scientific evidence concerning this matter. The 

 conference took the view that the potential of the central 

 Pacific resource could not be correctly assessed unless it were 

 viewed in the context of the tuna populations of the entire 

 Pacific. Material was presented that dealt with the large 

 surface fishery in the eastern Pacific Ocean and with the 

 Pacific-wide Japanese longline catch. 



The Eastern Pacific Tuna Fishery 



Sailing from San Pedro and San Diego, the California 

 fishing fleet seeks tunas as far as northern Chile (fig. 8). 

 Today most of the vessels are purse seiners (in 1964 the 

 United States had 111 purse seiners and 35 bait boats) and 

 are mostly between 100 and 200 tons. Walter M. Matsumoto 

 charted the growth of this fishery for the Governor's 

 Conference. 



The fishery dates back to the early years of the century ; 

 about 400 tons of albacore were taken in 1911. From this 

 small start, the fishery rose rapidly, so that by 1920, landings 

 were 19,600 tons. The largest constituent of the catch 

 remained albacore, but yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, and 

 bluefin tuna were also taken. By 1930, the catch was near 

 50,000 tons. The beginning of the depression saw catches 

 waver, but by the mid-1930's, the total had climbed above 

 60,000 tons, with yellowfin tuna contributing the most. The 

 industry had its first 100,000-ton year in 1940. After World 

 War II, this record was soon doubled ; a catch of 200,000 tons 

 was achieved for the first time in 1960. From 1960 through 

 1965, the annual catch remained between 150,000 and 



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