Figure 14. — Catch of Pacific spiny lobsters aboard the 

 Pelican . 



sections bits of broken, white china have been 

 used as bait substitutes. In the course of the 

 surveys reported herein, however, the Pelican 

 used a shrimp trawl to obtain bait readily in 

 most areas. 



Because a trap fishery could be developed 

 successfully in a given area only if bait were 

 available, bait surveys were considered an 

 integral part of the lobster explorations. Bait 

 used, in every instance, was taken in the area 

 in which the traps were fished. On the Pacific 

 side, 1- to 2-hour drags of the 40-foot shrimp 

 trawl generally resulted in 200 to 300 pounds 

 of small, mixed bottomfishes suitable for bait; 

 hence bait would not be a limiting factor in 

 developing a fishery. On the Caribbean coast, 

 trawling was less successful. In the Bocas 

 area, bait trawling was impractical during the 

 period of investigation, because of the limited 

 amount of bottom sufficiently smooth to allow 

 trawling, combined with the difficulty of trawl- 

 ing in the rough weather that prevailed. The 

 bait problem there was solved satisfactorily 

 by catching sharks with longlines. 



Miscellaneous Catch Components 



Although the project was established to 

 determine the potential of the spiny lobster 

 resource, note was made of the other animals 

 taken in traps, longlines, and trawls during 

 the field work. Among those of possible corn- 



Figure 15. — Pacific sand lobster ( Evibacus princeps ), a 

 female with eggs. 



mercial significance were Chinese or sand 

 lobsters, shrimp, scallops, foodfish, and 

 sharks. 



The shrimp resources of the Pacific waters 

 of Panama have been studied extensively, and 

 catches made there were for the most part 

 taken on well-established commercial grounds. 

 In the Caribbean, however, less study has been 

 devoted to shrimp. In the course of trawling 

 for bait, small numbers of shrimp were taken 

 on both the San Bias and Bocas grounds. 

 Small numbers of white and brown shrimp 

 ( Penaeus schmitti and P. braziliensis ) were 

 taken in Chiriqui Lagoon in depths less than 10 

 fathoms. Farther north, off Icocas Island 

 (Bocas area) 50 and 60 pounds of mixed brown 

 and pink (P. duorarum) shrimp were taken in 

 two bait drags. The possibility exists for a 

 commercial shrimp fishery in this area. 



Foodfish occurred in most bait drags, parti- 

 cularly in the Facific. An excellent potential 

 for development of a foodfish fishery appears 

 to exist in the Rio Hato area of the Gulf of 

 Panama where five drags in shallow water 

 caught from 1,500 to 3,000 pounds of edible 

 fishes, mostly large croakers. The small 

 amount of shark longlining done invariably 

 resulted in good catches. A definite potential 

 exists for the development of a shark fishery, 

 as suggested by the Bureau study team in 1961 . 



Environmental Factors Influencing Catch 



Records maintained during the field work in- 

 cluded not only fishing effort and catch, but 

 also certain environmental data of the type 

 that experience in fishery explorations else- 

 where had shown to be important in interpreting 

 fishing results. Unfortunately, complete anal- 

 ysis of the effects of these factors is not 

 possible, partly because of the short duration 

 of the work period reported on here and 

 partly because of the necessity for covering 



13 



