I think sportsmen realize we have a high mortality 

 rate with tagged billfishes, but they are still willing to 

 tag these fish. I see a challenge here to the sportsmen 

 to find better ways of hooking fish or getting them 

 alongside so that they can be more easily tagged, 

 thereby reducing mortality from this cause. At pres- 

 ent the only way to catch billfish is by hook and line 

 either with the longline or rod and reel. An exception 

 is by harpooning them and that is not very satisfac- 

 tory for our purposes. 



We need to know the economic value of sport 

 fisheries. The billfish catch by sportsmen is not great, 

 but the sportsmen spend a lot to catch them. 



The sportsmen, as Dick Robins said, assist us in the 

 collection of biological data but there is one thing that 

 I think they could collect in addition to weight, and 

 that is length; of course, some do this routinely. We 

 should also collect data on the sex of the fish and this 

 is not so difficult. In summary, we should give a little 

 training and urge the marine game fishermen to take 

 an interest in the billfish resources and the future 

 management of them. As Dick Stroud pointed out this 

 needs funds not only from our country but from other 

 countries around the Pacific Ocean (and worldwide). 

 These countries or states should be encouraged to 

 conduct additional work on the billfish resources off 

 their coasts. I urge the marine game fishing world as a 

 whole to get a copy of the Proceedings of this meeting 

 and to read it, because I think you will find we have 

 summarized just about all the knowledge on billfishes 

 worldwide. Hopefully this will give us a better in- 

 formed and enlightened marine game fisherman 

 geared for the billfishes. 



D. Lewis 



Thank you very much, Jim. Our last panelist is one 

 that I am sure you all know. You have certainly heard 

 about him, he is one of the pioneer charter captains of 

 Kona, he's been at it a long time, he is knowledgeable, 

 and it gives me great pleasure to present another good 

 friend of mine, George Parker. 



G. Parker 



Thank you, Dudley. I am a charter boat skipper and 

 I think I have been at this for 28 yr now. This year I 

 am president of the Kona Charter Skippers Associa- 

 tion which comprises some 18, possibly 17 boats now 

 that we lost a boat last night in the Kona area. I have 

 just thought of a real good reason for all of us being 

 here, in addition to the reasons that are quite obvious. 

 It is said that this globe is covered three-fourths by 

 water and only one-fourth by land, and it is for sure 

 the good Lord intended for us to spend three-fourths 

 of our time fishing and the balance ploughing. 



I cannot tell you how excited I am about this 

 meeting. Kona is just bursting its seams with scien- 

 tists and other people knowledgeable about billfish; 



all kinds of fish for that matter. I want to emphasize 

 that Kona is certainly proud to have you all here from 

 all over the world for what I understand is the first 

 ever Billfish Symposium. The Charter Boat Associa- 

 tion, which I represent here this morning, could not be 

 happier about this event. 



It has been said that it is important that the charter 

 boat captains and crews, as well as the private sport 

 fishermen, realize that they can be a very great help to 

 the scientist. They should be alert and report the 

 things they see, the things that happen aboard the 

 boat relating to fish, water currents, temperature, and 

 other conditions of interest. For example such facts 

 that one day we see thousands of porpoises then the 

 next day there isn't a porpoise near the boat. Or when 

 the humpback whale comes down here what happens 

 then? Does he scare off all the marlin? Do the currents 

 make that much difference to our fishing? We all en- 

 counter these things when we're at sea but we don't 

 record them, and although we talk over the Citizen 

 Band (CB) radio to each other about what we think 

 the current is doing and why we are, or are not, 

 catching fish, it never seems to get beyond our 

 association and our daily conversations. 



Possibly one result of this meeting and what's been 

 said here this morning might bring about a form that 

 we could have aboard each charter boat to be filled 

 out. We have plenty of time between strikes and it 

 doesn't have to be something to be done after you get 

 home when you're so tired and can't think straight. 

 We all have writing space aboard our boats. We could 

 have a pad of forms to fill in, even if it's virtually 

 reduced to a form where you just check off the items 

 as you go down a list. At least we have to do something 

 more than we're doing at present. We've got to help 

 the scientists with our firsthand knowledge. We're out 

 there on the grounds rather like a weather ship out on 

 the channel that reports the weather as it comes 

 through, so we are the outposts and we have to re- 

 spond about fishing. At the coming meeting of the 

 Charter Skippers Association we are going to have 

 some time devoted to the form of help we can offer to 

 the scientists and in turn to ourselves. The realization 

 of what we can do has been growing. Even before this 

 Symposium some of our skippers have been recording 

 certain types of information. It even occurred to me to 

 put a tape recorder aboard my boat and tape what 

 comes in over the CB. This could be one way of start- 

 ing a record of daily fishing conversations; possibly 

 some one on the shore, who has a good CB radio could 

 tape record some of the fishing conversations that go 

 on off the Kona coast. 



We are so fortunate here to have a calm, comfort- 

 able sea to fish in and some days with a lot of fish. I 

 wonder if we realize how lucky we are. Most good 

 billfishing areas are so rough that you are standing on 

 your beam ends and yet people still go out fishing for 

 them. I would say we are spoiled here with our lee 

 shore that extends out so far that 95% of the time we 

 hardly have a whitecap. I think the 5 fishing days of 



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