As is clear from Table 2, seasonal changes are extremely marked in 

 this area. Fishing is extraordinarily active during the southwest monsoon, 

 presenting its greatest activity from July to September. This tendency 

 is approximately the same in the contiguous East Philippines Sea and, to 

 a lesser extent, in the South Seas Government-General and to the south in 

 the Banda and Flores seas. The cause is not clear, but it is thought to 

 be intimately related to the ocean currents. 



(e) Coastal Waters of Papua and the Solomons (0° - 15°S, 130° - 170°E) 



Compared to the areas under the South Seas Government-General in a 

 corresponding position on the other side of the Equator, the fishing is 

 somewhat inferior. By comparison, in this area spearfishes are extra- 

 ordinarily numerous, and big-eyed tuna are slightly fewer. In general the 

 spearfishes seem to be most abundant near islands and in straits . The 

 yellowfin are somewhat larger than those taken in the South Seas Government- 

 General, and the seasonal changes in the fishing situation, just as in 

 the South Seas Government-General, are not too pronounced. 



(f ) Banda and Flores Seas 



Yellowfin occiir densely in this area, while big-eyed tuna and spear- 

 fishes appear to be comparatively scarce. The yellowfin are generally 

 large, and there seems to be no great variation in the density of dis- 

 tribution throughout the year. Jfe have not yet been able to obtain any 

 data on it, but it is thought that this area has an important significance 

 as a spawning ground of the yellowfin. 



The size of the yellowfin, the catch rate, and the composition of the 

 catch resemble the Indian Ocean coast of the Lesser Sundas more than they 

 do the contiguous sea areas to the north. (See tables 1 and 6.) This 

 fact can be considered as indicating that the schools of this area bear 

 a deep relationship to the Indian Ocean area, and this, considered from 

 the point of view of the set of the currents, is very natural (see Figure 2) 



If we summarize the above-described distributional situation for the 

 tunas and spearfishes in the Southwest Pacific and its connected sea areas, 



1. Yellowfin, big-eyed tuna, and spearfishes are distributed 

 throughout all areas of the Southwest Pacific all the year round. 



2. The most common species is the yellowfin. 



3. As far as we have been able to ascertain at present, the tuna 

 (black tuna) occurs only north of the coastal waters of northern Luzon. 



4. Big-eyed tuna are in general more numerous in pelagic waters in 

 the low latitudes and are fewer in enclosed sea areas. 



5. The albacore is even more markedly pelagic in nature, and hardly 

 occurs at all in enclosed sea areas. 



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