Table 4. — Summary of the tuna catch. Manning cruise 13. (This tabulation 

 includes only the catches at stations where 40 standard baskets 

 (240 hooks) were fished in a manner designed to furnish an in- 

 dex of abundance. Other stations and experinnental gear are 

 considered elsewhere. ) 



were taken at 5 S. latitude, 180 E. longitude. The absolute size of the catch obtained on these 

 surveys cannot, however, be regarded as indicative of the potential of the population as the gear 

 was designed for yellowfin fishing and probably was not operated in a manner conducive to the 

 most efficient capture of albacore. 



Japanese Longline Fishing 



There was a renewal of Japanese commercial fishing in the western part of the central 

 Pacific during the latter half of 1952. Some of their catches during the period covered by this re- 

 port (August-November 1952) in the western portion of the area under consideration are given in 

 tables 5 and 6. In general they show the same abundance of tunas as our experinnental fishing, 

 with bigeye dominating north and yellowfin south of 5 N. latitude. Further, it is evident that the 

 relatively low catch rates experienced by us at 169 W. longitude were representative as far west 

 as 180 longitude. 



Certain portions of the data in table 6 are of special interest because they afford an 

 opportunity for a direct comparison of our catch rates with commercial fishing results. Figure 8 

 shows the catches of the Manning along 169 W. longitude in coniparison with Japanese catches 

 (averaged by degrees of latitude) made between 168 W. and 175 W. longitude at almost the same 



13 



