Particulars of the Investigation 



Research vessel Hakuo Wt'.ru 



Personnel 3 Assistant Technicians and the crew of the Hakuo Maru 

 Method of investigation The best divers among the crew of the Hakijo 

 KiP.TU explored various localities around the reef to discover 

 bnit. At night a light -.vas used r.nd the bait fish vrhich 

 assembled around it were observed. 



Outline of Progress 



For 5 days from June 16 to 20 at Puluwat and Alet islands sevprcl 

 fishermen dived and looked for bait in the bay £ lagoon?_7. No suitable 

 supply of bai_t was discoverp-d, only an extremely small quantity of o .] i san 

 and hime.ji /_ goatfish_7 being seen, with no other prospect of bait for 

 carrying out our experimental fishing. A 3 hour trisl with the light at 

 night brought no useful bait, only a few o.jisa n being collected. 



Although'-' we tried in this way to fin-'', bait fish both in the daytime 

 and at night, v/e were unable to discover any suitable concentration of 

 bait for skipjack fishing in this group of islands. 



Conclusions 



Results of this bait fish survey failed to disclose a supply of bait 

 for a skipjack fishery in the lagoon at this atoll, perhaps because the 

 investigation may have been made at the \«rrong season. It is, of course, 

 not possible to decide ^Thether ther^e is or is not bait solely on the basis 

 of this investigation, but it is thought th-'.t it will be difficult to get 

 suita^].'-^. bait. Fn.rthermorp, the lagoon is shallow and it would be 

 difficult to operate a stick-held dipnet in it. 



It was thus impossible to carry on experimental fishing for skipjack 

 l>-cause of the scarcity of bait, and the Puluwat Islands skipjack survey 

 was unavoidably called off, only the bait fish survey being car-^ied out. 



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