enough to support a fishery more than a few times the 

 size of the present one; furthermore, the supply is unde- 

 pendable; and, even worse, the nehu is a remarkably 

 fragile fish, prone to die in catastrophic numbers on hand- 

 ling. 



The research program at Honolulu in 1967-68 iiichuled 

 several studies of the nehu, in which two approaches were 

 used : first, to attempt to improve the present primitive 

 method of collecting, which often requires the ships to quit 

 fishing for tunas and fish for baitfish, most of which are 

 taken during the daylight ; and second, to search for other 

 small fishes that could supplement or replace the nehu. It 

 has been calculated that if the fleet did not have to fish 

 for nehu, but could purchase bait, it would have more 

 time for its chief purpose — catching tunas. The Labora- 

 tory has experimented with fixed traps and lift nets to 

 take nehu, the object being to develop methods that require 

 less manpower than do pre.sent techniques. The results 

 were only slightly encouraging; they emphasized what was 

 already painfully known to the fishermen — that the nehu 

 is a remarkably undependable fish. High catches were 

 sometimes succeeded immediately by a run of dry hauls. 

 This variablility was all the more pronounced because only 

 two to five traps and nets were being used simultaneously. 

 After experiments on catching and holding nehu. surplus 

 fish were given the commercial fleet (fig. 0). 



The experiments on the catching and handling of l)ait- 

 fish were carried out under the direction of Richard S. 

 Shomura in Kaneohe Bay, on the island of Oahu. Wiu-k 

 there ended in 1968; similar investigations may later hi' 



FIGURE 10, The threadfin shad, a small fish common in the Missis- 

 sippi Bosin, was introduced to Hawaii in the 1950'5 os o foroge fish 

 for largemouth and smollmouth boss. Tests by the Laboratory have 

 conclusively shown it mokes a sotisfoctory substitute for the nehu 

 in catching skipjack tuna. 



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