Yellowfin, big-eyed tuna, and spearfish were sometimes all taken on 

 the same line, but a peculiarity of the fishing situation which we en- 

 countered on this trip was the way in which at times large numbers of 

 yellowfin would be taken while at other times the spearfish predominated. 

 It almost seemed as if the fish were schooling by species » At the seventh 

 fishing station 29 yellowfin were taken and no other fish were caught. 

 The fish were all on the forward half of the longline, hardly any being 

 taken on the after section, The_fish were all of a size, ranging from 9 

 to 10 kan / 1 kan = 8,27 pounds_/ in weight. In the case of the spear- 

 fishes, those of slightly over 10 kan were thought to have some tendency 

 to school. At OTir last fishing station off the Gilbert Is, we took one 

 lone giant of ^3 kan, but we were never able to raise another cf similar 

 size. 



Only one dolphin was taken on the trolling lines. 



In the following paragraphs I will describe in detail the fishing 

 situation and related matters for each station from the time we left 

 Jaluit, but if the reader is deeply interested in fishing conditions in 

 this area I would like to have him consult the account of the exploratory 

 fishing done by the training ship Hakuo Maru of the Fisheries School of 

 the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in the Solomons in 1936, This 

 is the only fisheries exploration which has been carried out in these 

 waters in the past. 



After leaving Jaluit we hooked two skipjack on the trolling lines 

 near Ebon I. , but they both got away. These were undoubtedly island 

 skipjack. 



The day after leaving Ebon (May $) we got another on the trolling 

 line in the morning but it too got away. At 10;00 A„M, we hooked one, 

 and at 12;30 P.M. we hooked two (one of which got off). At 2500 P.M. 

 we took two fish weighing from 900 momme /"7,4.5 pound3_7 to 1 kan 100 

 momme / 9.1 pounds__7s. At this time we sighted a school of porpoise 

 mixed with sharks /_ whales ?/ near otir starboard side and from these 

 circiomstances it was thought that this particular area is rich in all 

 forms of marine life. Beginning at 5:4-0 AoM, on the 6th we set out 

 60 baskets of line west of Nauru I, (Except for the third set, where 

 we used 50 baskets, all of our other trials were made with 60 baskets, 

 which was a suitable amount of line for an experimental set. If we 

 had wanted to catch fish in large quantities we would have had to find 

 a good spot bji- sxplcratory fishing and then set a large number of bas- 

 kets of line and remain there for several days. We tried to avoid 

 causing the crew unnecessary work.) There were absolutely no indica- 

 tions by which we could judge the prospects for success at this station, 

 but as it turned out we had good luck on our first set and took 6 

 spearfish and 3 sharks. Two days later on the 8th at 4.^00 A,Mc we 

 began our second set. We took 14, yellowfin, the first which we had 

 caught; we also took 10 sharks and two of the yellowfin were shark- 

 bitten. 



At the time of the first set the weather appeared to be favorable, 

 while at the second set it was somewhat stormy and rainy. On the first 



