surface water temperatures at about 26*^, big schools of large 

 albacore occur, it is believed for spawning purposeso These 

 fish could be taken on pole and line gear, they took to the 

 bait splendidly, and no difficulty was experienced in trans- 

 porting live sardineso It is believed that a good deal of 

 skipjack and big-eyed tuna can also be taken in this vicinityc 

 Fishing boats which attempt to operate in this area at this 

 season must, of course, have adequate insulation and refrigera- 

 tion machinery, and reliable celestisil navigation is also 

 essential c The condition of the fish and their spawning 

 seasons are problems particularly worthy of attention c The 

 Shizuoka Prefectural Fisheries Experiment Station has made a 

 study of the condition of the albacore taken on both these 

 cruises, and the results are said to have shown that the fish 

 from the second cruise were decidedly superioro 



The fish from the first cruise weighed from 20 to JO 

 pounds, the average being about 25 pounds, while those taken 

 on the second crxiise weighed from 30 to 60 pounds with the average 

 over UO pounds o Thus, the albacore taken on the first cruise 

 were far smaller. The condition factor for fish from the first 

 cruise averaged 23 2, while for fish from the second cruise it 

 averaged 25:>5c With respect to the quality of the meat, the 

 fish taken on the first cruise were somewhat inferior to fish 

 taken during the summer in coastal waters, and the stage of 

 development of the gonads was not much different from that of 

 fish taken in the winter fishery during the latter part of 

 March, By contrast, the flesh of the albacore from the second 

 cruise was the best that had ever been seen. Their gonads 

 were very well developed. Ordinarily, the gonads of one 

 albacore weigh from about 10 grams to 18 grams, but in the 

 case of these fish the average was about 165 grams„ At present, 

 the spawning season and spawning grounds of the albacore are 

 said to be unknown, however, judging by these circumstances 

 it is deduced that a part of them may spawn in the vicinity 

 of MLdway Island at water temperatures of 26° to 27° around 

 the early part of October (the spawning season is generally 

 considered to be from about October to December),, It is asstimed 

 that the spawning fish weigh 50 or 60 pounds and that they lay 

 more than 300,000 eggs at a time. It appears that the eggs 

 float separatelyo These notes are recorded here as a problem 

 for future research. 



(2) Concerning the winter fishery 



(a) Oceanographic conditions and the coastal fishing groimds 



These have been in the past the fishing grounds of the 

 longline fishery, and they are separate from the offshore 

 grounds of the winter seasono The fishing grounds first 



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