conducted in places already recognized, em- 

 pirically, as good fishing areas (see Introduc- 

 tion). Therefore one such area, the Gulf of 

 Tehuantepec, was selected for particularly 

 intensive study, involving all the main parts 

 of the energy chain; in two other areas, Baja 

 California and Peru, the work was substantial 

 in some parts only of the energy chain; in 

 other areas, e.g., Panama Bight, Gulf of 

 California, and certain oceanic islands, in- 

 vestigations were made in still smaller parts 

 of the energy chain, as opportunity offered. 

 It was realized that these studies of areas 

 would be facilitated by similar investigations 

 encompassing the eastern tropical Pacific at 

 large, so as to provide a picture of average 

 conditions for that region with which condi- 

 tions in particular areas could be compared; 

 therefore, such studies, which had been started 

 earlier (e.g.. Holmes et al., 1957; Holmes 

 et al., 1958; Wooster and Cromwell, 1958), 

 were continued. Finally, since long time series 

 of measurements for statistical analysis of 

 ocean-atmosphere relationships were not 

 readily available from areas in the eastern 

 tropical Pacific, it was decided to gain some 

 insight into these relationships by using series 

 that were available from the eastern north 

 Pacific. These aspects of the investigational 

 plan are shown in table 1 (Region investigated, 

 and below). 



The sources of data for the above-mentioned 

 investigations in the various regions are 

 indicated at the top of table 1. "Previous 

 oceanography" means datafrom oceanographic 

 cruises made before the STOR program started 

 in mid-1957, together with measurements of 

 surface temperature, sea level, and atmos- 

 pheric conditions made on nonresearch ships 

 and at tide gauge stations. "Further cruises" 

 means oceanographic cruises made in the 

 eastern tropical Pacific after mid-1957, by 

 STOR and other groups of investigators, as 

 explained in the next section. "Moored sta- 

 tions," explained in the next section, are 

 devices that could be used to obtain ocea- 

 nographic information from any part of the 

 ocean, but primarily intended to supply it for 

 the tuna fishing areas as far as the STOR 

 program is concerned; the broken a^^o^v 

 indicates the experinnental nature of this 

 project. "Fishery records" means the records 

 of catch, fishing effort, and catch per unit 

 effort (apparent abundance) that are available 

 for each species of tuna from the Inter - 

 American Tropical Tuna Commission, as ex- 

 plained further in the section on "Tuna ecol- 

 ogy." 



SPECIAL OPERATIONS 



This section describes the operations under- 

 taken to obtain information, apart from that 

 represented by "Previous oceanography" and 

 "Fishery records," for the investigation. 



Cruises 



There were five STOR cruises, each dis- 

 tinguished by the initials TO (Tuna Oceanog- 

 raphy): 



TO-58-1 (Expedition SCOT) . --This cruise 

 was made in cooperation with the Tuna Com- 

 mission, which paid about 30 percent of the 

 expenses. The main purposes, so far as STOR 

 was concerned, were (a) to obtain data for a 

 study of interrelationships of light, nutrients, 

 and biota for a wide range of eastern tropical 

 Pacific waters, at a different season from 

 previous cruises of the same kind (expeditions 

 EASTROPIC, fall of 1955, and SCOPE, fall of 

 1956), and (b) to begin an oceanographic 

 study of the Gulf of Tehuantepec. These matters 

 are discussed elsewhere in this paper. The 

 ship Spencer F. Baird was used; the cruise 

 period was April 23-June 20, 1958; R. W. 

 Holmes and M. Blackburn were scientific 

 leaders before and after June 2, respectively. 

 Figure 1 shows the expedition track. 



TO-58-2 .--The purposes of this cruise were 

 (a) to make further oceanographic surveys in 

 the Gulf of Tehuantepec and (b) to establish and 

 tend moored instrumented stations. The results 

 are mentioned elsewhere in the paper. The 

 ship was again the Spencer F. Baird; the cruise 

 period was October 31-December 8, 1958; 

 G. W. Groves was scientific leader. The ship 

 went to the Gulf of Tehuantepec (fig. 1) by the 

 most direct route and returned in the same way. 



TO-59-l.--This cruise was intended (a) to 

 continue the work in the Gulf of Tehuantepec 

 and (b) to gather further information about 

 the interrelationships of light, nutrients, and 

 biota over a range of eastern tropical Pacific 

 waters. The results are mentioned elsewhere. 

 The ship used was the Stranger; the cruise 

 period was January 15-February 25, 1959; 

 R. W. Holmes was scientific leader. The area 

 covered was in the main like that of TO-58-2, 

 but with an extension to the southeast of the 

 Gulf of Tehuantepec, to the area of the Costa 

 Rica thermal anticline or dome (fig. 1). 



TO-59-2.--The purposes of the cruise were 

 (a) to make another survey of the Gulf of 

 Tehuantepec at yet another season of the year 

 and (b) to cooperate with California Coopera- 

 tive Oceanic Fisheries Investigations 

 (CalCOFI) in making a detailed oceanographic 

 survey of the Baja California region in sum- 

 mer, which is the tuna season there (fig. 1). 

 The results of (a) are mentioned elsewhere, 

 but those of (b) have not yet been analyzed. 

 As regards (b) the cruise party took respon- 

 sibility for traversing the regular CalCOFI 

 station pattern in the southern half of the 

 Baja California area. For CalCOFI purposes 

 this part of TO- 59-2 was known as cruise 



