FIGURE 26, A crewman aboard a research vessel fishes for tuna dur- 

 ing an experimental cruise. Bird flocks are a sign of the presence of 

 fish. Water is sproyed on the sea surface during fishing. 



These hooks fish far beneath the surface of the sea, at 500 

 feet or more. The mainline is buoyed up by glass or plastic 

 floats. The fishermen begin setting the lines at about 3:00 

 a.m. The operation requires about 4 strenuous hours of 

 work as the hooks are baited and one basket put overboard 

 every 30 seconds. Then the vessel either drifts or steams 

 back to the head of the set. The arduous task of bringing 

 in the longlines begins about noon and continues without 

 cease until midnight or later; the fish are removed and 

 stowed in ice. 



Longline fishing depends for its success, of course, on the 

 fact that the larger and older tunas of some species, notably 

 bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna, are found several hundred 

 feet beneath the surface, not near it. The reason for this 

 distribution is not known. The ToioisokJ Cromwell sonar 

 may eventually provide clues. 



Longline skippers are reputed to locate their fishing 

 grounds partly on the basis of past experience, partly as a 

 result of scientific studies of the ocean which have suggested 

 that the presence of some of the subsurface tunas is related 

 to certain oceanographic features. The catch is truly oceanic, 

 bearing no particular relation to the nearness of land. 



The Hawaiian longline fleet is a scaled-down version of 

 the Japanese. The vessels evolved from the Japanese sam- 

 pan. They have a high narrow bow and moderate to low 

 freeboard aft. They are about half as long as the most 

 widely used Japanese versions. Where the Japanese may 

 fish 400 baskets a set, the Hawaiian longliners fish no more 

 than 70. Hawaiian fishermen get up later, beginning their 

 set about 5:30 a.m. Hauling commences later in the day, 

 about 4:00 p.m., and takes about 3 hours. The Japanese 

 vessels are at sea for months on end ; the Hawaiian vessels, 

 which lack mechanical refrigeration, average about 9 days 

 at sea and most of their trips are made within sight of land. 

 A Japanese longliner has a crew of 30 men, a Hawaiian 

 vessel 4. 



38 



