FIGURE 12 - THE GILL NET WAS OVERHAULED AND 

 REPAIRED PERIODICALLY BEFORE STOWING ON 

 THE STERN BEHIND THE BAIT TANK. 



FIGURE 13 - THREE MEN IN THE STERN BIN STOW 

 THE GILL NET IN PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT 

 SET. 



Long Line 



Long-line fishing for albacore by the Cobb was on a very restricted 

 basis, and the gear was entirely experimental. Only four sets were made, and re- 

 siilts were meager with one lone albacore being taken along with the ever-present 

 blue sharks. The Japanese, during the pre-war years of 1936-40, took 25 per cent 

 (or 100 million poxinds) of their total tuna catch with surface long-line gear; 

 and this type of gear proved especially effective in their recently-discovered 

 winter albacore grounds in the mid-Pacific (Shapiro 1950). Although the fact 

 that one albacore was taken on surface long line by the Cobb may be evidence that 

 the gear will take tuna in the northeastern Pacific, this method of fishing poses 

 many difficulties for the American fishermen. The small return per unit of geau* 

 (average 2 to 4 albacore per 100 hooks in some areas) fished by the Japanese 

 would have to be increased many-fold to be profitable under American higher labor 

 costs, and the primitive-type gear needs numerous improvements to increase its 

 efficiency. The single albacore taken by the Cobb with this gear was alive when 

 landed, and the possibility of its having taken the hook while the gear was being 

 hauled, rather than duidng the gear's period of stationary fishing, should be 

 kept in mind. 



Make-up of long line 



Except for a fev variations in make-up and method of setting, the long- 

 line gear was constructed quite similar to the conventional halibut gear used on 

 the west coast. The main line was of 32-pound halibut line, and made up In 50- 

 fathom shots, 5 of which were tied together to form one skate. Fo\ir skates, or 

 1,000 fathoms of gear, were fished in a string with hooks spaced at 20-fathom in- 

 tervals. Various types and lengths (from 1 to 5 fathoms) of gangions, or branch 

 lines, were used in connecting the hooks to the main line. These included 14- 

 pound and l6-pound hemp and cotton halibut gangions, braided green nylon leader, 

 monofilament nylon, 75-pound test cuttyhunk, and white braided nylon leader. Hooks 

 were of the Japanese long-line type (see figure 5) and No. 9/0 and larger halibut 

 hooks. Regular halibut bamboo flagpoles and buoys were attached to each end of 

 the string with 9-thread buoy line. Support for the main line was afforded by 

 l6-inch inflated rubber floats attached by snap hooks to a ring at the end of each 



17 



