FLEET FISHED 

 6400 DAYS IN 1957 



DAILY SUCCESS OF FISHING -M57 

 TUNA CLIPPERS 201-300 TONS 



Figure U. — Daily success of fishing of 

 Class h (201-300 tons capacity) bait boats 

 in 1957* Time spent running has been 

 eliminated. 



year. A typical vessel spent 70 days at sea 

 per trip and used UO days scouting and fish- 

 ing. The more than 50 boats of 201 to 300 

 tons capacity spent more than 6,000 of over 

 11,000 days at sea scouting and fishing. 

 What kind of daily catches did they make? 

 They are shown as a frequency distribution 

 in table Ij and are illustrated in figure U. 

 No catches were made on 23 percent of the 

 "days spent fishing" which means that on an 

 average trip of about !±0 days fishing, 9 

 were spent without landing fish. About 37 

 percent or nearly 15 days per trip yielded 

 k tons or less. Few days yielded catches 

 greater than 15 tons. Comparable data for 

 the purse seiners and albacore vessels have 

 not yet been processed. While we have no 

 information concerning the average daily 

 catches of the albacore, the California 

 Department of Fish and Game probably has. 



The number of fishing trips a boat is 

 able to make each year depends on the daily 

 success of fishing experienced and on the 

 "turn about time" between trips used for 

 maintenance and repairs. Since 1951 > "turn 

 about time" has, on the average, been much 

 greater than necessary because, as men- 

 tioned, it has not always been possible to 

 dispose of the fish immediately on arrival 

 in port. Extension of "turn about time" 

 has adversely affected the cost of catching 

 fish for all owners and their crews. It 



Table k. — Success of fishing of Class k (201-300 tons) bait boats in 1957 showing tons caught daily as 

 frequency distributions. Time fishing has been separated from time running and baiting. 



Total 



1754 



1899 



1592 



1133 



6378 



1+0 



Source: Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. 



52 



