quarter from waters around Hawaii County 

 (table 4). Contrarily, the proportion caught In 

 Maul County regions decreased from 40 to 27 

 percent of the total between the first and second 

 quarters, although all these regions usually 

 showed increases in catches over the previous 

 quarter. Catches off Cape Kaea, although fairly 

 good in the first quarter, moved upward to an 

 average of 115 metric tons. Around Oahu, good 

 catches were usually concentrated in the re- 

 gions to the north (Kahuku Point) and to the 

 west (Kaena Point) of the island. The high 

 catches in these regions, which averaged 141 

 and 182 metric tons, respectively, contributed 

 to the increase in the proportion of skipjack 

 tuna caught around Oahu (table 4). Regions of 

 fairly good catches--those falling between 50 

 and 100 metric tons--occurred in both offshore 

 west and south Oahu, off Kahului, off Makapuu 

 Point, and off Barbers Point. The remaining 

 regions usually had fair catches of between 20 

 and 50 metric tons; the exception was Maka- 

 huena Point, where catches averaged 20 metric 

 tons or less over the years. 



Third quarter . --Fishing effort usually was 

 maximized and led to peak catches in 15 of the 

 18 third quarters examined. The fleet averaged 

 about 577 trips in this quarter, which accounted 

 for about 36 percent of the average annual total. 

 From second-quarter landings that averaged 

 1,414 metric tons, third-quarter landings in- 

 creased to about 2,000 metric tons, which rep- 

 resented a sizable 46 percent of the average 

 annual catch. 



Catches from the four high-producing regions 

 of the second quarter--off Hilo, off Cape Kaea, 

 off Kaena Point, and off Kahuku Point — usually 

 continued their upward trend and reached their 

 maximum in the third quarter (fig. 5). Catches 

 off Hilo usually showed the largest increase in 

 total catches as the average moved from 147 

 metric tons in the previous quarter to 227 

 metric tons, an increase of 80 metric tons. 

 Good fishing off Cape Kaea in the second quar- 

 ter usually persisted into the third quarter 

 despite a slight decline in the amount of effort 

 expended (table 3). Catches usually increased 

 slightly over the previous quarter. In the other 

 two high-producing regions of the second quar- 

 ter, catches increased 51 metric tons off Kaena 

 Point and 11 metric tons off Kahuku Point. 



There was one other region in Maui County 

 with prominent catches in the third quarter. 

 The catches made off Kahului (112 metric tons 



as compared with 64 in the second quarter) 

 augmented the catches from other Maui County 

 regions--particularly off Kaanapali, where the 

 catches usually decreased (table 3). 



Off Oahu, the two high-producing regions 

 were joined by two others that had high catches — 

 Barbers Point and offshore west Oahu. To- 

 gether, these four regions usually had catches 

 that represented 64 percent of the catches from 

 around Oahu in the third quarter. From the 

 second to third quarters, the increases aver- 

 aged 32 metric tons off Barbers Point and 

 nearly 72 metric tons in offshore west Oahu. 

 Although the largest average increase in caich 

 was in offshore west Oahu, the catches aver- 

 aged highest off Kaena Point, where they 

 reached 233 metric tons. 



Of the other regions, eight had increased and 

 one had decreased catches in the third quarter. 

 Regions with fairly good catches of between 50 

 and 100 metric tons included Ilio Point, Maka- 

 puu Point, offshore south Oahu, and offshore 

 Kauai. As in the region off Kaanapali, catches 

 usually declined off Nawiliwili in the third 

 quarter after reaching a peak in the previous 

 quarter. Off Barking Sands, catches remained 

 at about the same level as in the second quarter. 



Fourth quarter . --As abundance starts to 

 decline in the fall, the curtailment of fishing 

 results in considerably lower catches in the 

 fourth quarter. The average amount of fishing 

 effort expended was about 268 trips, or about 17 

 percent of the average annual effort. Fourth- 

 quarter catches usually were slightly heavier 

 than the first-quarter catches and over the 18- 

 year period averaged 521 metric tons or about 

 12 percent of the average annual catch. 



As in the first quarter, none of the regions in 

 the fourth quarter produced catches that aver- 

 aged more than 100 metric tons (fig. 6). Fairly 

 high catches, however, were centered usually 

 in two regions, both of which were also fairly 

 high-producing regions in the first quarter. 

 These regions--Cape Kaea with an average of 

 65 metric tons and Kaena Point with an average 

 of 59 metric tons — had nearly one-fourth of the 

 average fourth-quarter landings. Six other re- 

 gions had fair catches (20-50 metric tons): 

 Hilo, Kawaihae, Makapuu Point, Barbers Point, 

 offshore west Oahu, and Barking Sands. Ref- 

 erence to table 4 shows an interesting rise in 

 the proportion of fish caught and effort expended 

 in the Kauai regions relative to those in other 

 counties. The fishermen attribute this shift in 



