than that earned by a typical factory work- 

 er in southern California in the same year. 



Owners of albacore vessels, in general, 

 fish for other species besides albacore. 

 Those answering the Tariff Commission's 

 questionnaire obtained about 80 percent of 

 their income from the sale of this tuna 

 species, which is usually caught during the 

 six months or less of the year when it is 

 available ( table 2) . The situation of 

 these owners is similar to that of the 

 owners of the larger tuna boats. Sven 

 when average profit on sales was at a max- 

 imum of 30 percent in 1956, it only amounted 

 to $1^200 and included was the owner's earn- 

 ings as a crew member. 



Examination of figure 1 and table 1 

 indicates that for the large bait boats, 

 the variable expenses greatly exceed those 

 in the other categories, and for the seiners 

 they are, on the average, somewhat larger, 

 although semifixed expenses approach the 

 same level. Albacore boat owners find that 

 their variable expenses far exceed those in 

 the other categories. Since boat owners 

 have little possibility of reducing ex- 

 penses in other categories, it is the 

 variable or trip expenses which must be 

 minimized if the cost of catching tuna is 

 to be reduced appreciably. It is in this 

 area that the Bureau can assist the industry. 



Cost Factors 



Fishing operations are essentially the 

 same for all types of tuna boats. They in- 

 clude time spent running to and from the 

 fishing grounds and the time spent scouting 

 and fishing. Bait boats have one more op- 

 eration than seiners and jig boats - scout- 

 ing for and catching bait. These are the 

 operations which determine the length of a 

 fishing trip. Before imports became a 

 problem, these operations also determined 

 the number of trips made. "Turn about 

 time", which is the time spent in port be- 

 tween trips, was controlled primarily by 

 the owner and his crew. In recent years, 

 "turn about time" has increased markedly 

 and has been controlled, for the most part, 

 by how long the owner has had to wait to 

 sell his fish. It also can be increased, 

 of course, by prolonged negotiations be- 

 tween owners and fishermen. The only tie- 

 up of any real consequence from this cause 

 in recent years, however, was in 1951. 



Through the courtesy of the Inter- 

 American Tropical Tuna Commission and its 

 director, Dr. M. B. Schaefer, it is pos- 

 sible to examine typical fishing trips of 

 the large clippers and seiners (figs. 2 and 

 3 and table 3) . The data are for clippers 

 of 201 to 300 tons capacity (Class L) and 

 purse seiners of 101 to 200 tons (Class 3) • 

 Vessels of these capacities are typical of 

 the long range clippers and seiners. 



The average trip of a bait boat lasted 

 70 days over the years 1950 through 1958 

 and of this 21 days were spent running, 37 

 days were used to scout and fish, and 12 

 days were spent baiting. Shortest average 

 trips were made in 1951 • Fifty-seven days 

 were spent at sea - 21 days running, 28 

 days scouting and fishing and 8 days bait- 

 ing. Longest average trips were made in 

 1952 and 1953 with 82 and 81 days at sea - 

 2h days running, US days scouting and fish- 

 ing, and 13 days baiting. The important 

 thing to note is that the time spent run- 

 ning and baiting is quite constant from 

 year to year. The big variable is time 

 spent scouting and fishing. 



The large purse seiners have spent an 

 average of 38 days at sea on tuna trips 

 since 1952; of this time, 16 days were 

 devoted to running and 22 days to scouting 

 and fishing. Shortest average trips were 

 made in 1958 - 29 days with 12 running and 

 17 scouting and fishing. Longest average 

 trips were made in 195U - 52 days of which 

 23 were used running and 29 scouting and 

 fishing. In 195k, unlike any of the other 

 years, the seiners did much of their fish- 

 ing in waters off South America. If the 

 195k trips are disregarded, we find that 

 running time for the seiners averaged be- 

 tween 12 and 19 days per trip. Neverthe- 

 less, running time is more variable for 

 the seiners than it is for the bait boats. 

 However, like the bait boats, the seiners 

 spend more time fishing and scouting than 

 running, but running takes up a greater 

 proportion of their time (U2 percent) than 

 it does for clippers (30 percent). 



Comparable data on running and fishing 

 times are not available for albacore craft 

 but it is known that they spend more time 

 fishing than running and that the length of 

 average trip varies from year to year. 



For the bait boats, 1957 was a "normal" 



50 



