ff 



(3) Fishing situation 



First Trial 



MorEin^ and evening arej, of couraej, eonsldsred the raost suitable 

 times for eondueting experimental fishing far t\m& with longliaeSj, 

 horteveTg because the -yessel was scheduled to put in at Dilli in Timerj 

 a trial was made on the preceding day-j, July 5p at ISBO about S mile» 

 off the west side of Wetar Ic. using 50 baskets of lin® set in a westerly 

 direetiono 



From the time the vessel passed Ceram lo and entered the Banda Sea 

 the color of the sea water had generally appeared unfavorable, but as we 

 moved gradually south into the vicinity of Wetar lo it improvedo Obs©rva= 

 tions on the station showed a transparency of 40 meters ^ and flocks of 

 birds were seen flying in the vieinityc Although good tuna fishing was 

 antiuipatedp only 4 yeiiowfiUj, 1 bli?.ek marlinj, and 2 iskipjaek were taken 

 and the catch rate was less than 2 fish per 100 hookSo None of the fish 

 were shark=bitteno It was felt that the transparency of the water was 

 to© great o 



geoond '^ rlal 



After leaving Dilli we rounded th© ©astern tip of Timor and entered 

 the Tinor Sea<, The second station was fished about 30 miles off shoreo 

 At 0605 July 9^, 200 baskets were set in a SS direetiono The baitj, as 

 in the previous trial p was a mixture of frozen saury and salted sardine 

 which we had brought from Japano Three hours and 40 minutes were 

 required to set the 200 basket® of linSo W© began patrolling the line 

 immediately after it was set, and w© saw numerous schools of skipjack 

 while doing soo These skipjack appeared to be small fish of about 

 1 k^ ^^o^T poundsT' weight . Vlhile patrolling the linsSp we took in 

 one inarlin (blaek7 of about 40 kan;, one yellowfin, and one blue sharko 



We began hauling in the lines at 1500o Because the weight of the 

 fish on the lines was too great for the buoyaney of the floats^ the gear 

 sank av'id the lines broke four times while we ware hauling themo As a 

 result 11 hours were recuired to haul in the 200 baskets of gear^ and 

 the work was not finished until 0E£0 the following day^ July lOo The 

 catch was 18 yeliowfinp 10 albacorej, 3 big^eyedj, 1 white marlinj, 2 black 

 marlin^ and IS sharks „ and 13 fish (10 yeliowfinp 3 raarlin) were damaged 

 by shark-bite o The catch rate at this location j, if th© shark=bitt©n 

 fish are not counted, v/as ZoS, and with the shark^bitten fish it was 

 3o9o Furthermore g because of the difficulty of getting materials, 

 the gear used in this test was made with rather fine line and wire in 

 some of its branch lines ^ and for this reason 50 of the branch lines or 

 hooka were broken off the gear by the fisho If thes® were added in to 

 the total J the catch rate would be considerably increasedo 



Third Trie-l 



The position of this fishing ground v/as 8^ 53«i>p 129® bb'E, south«= 



=10= 



