In Peruj where the gill net is used successfully for bonitOj 

 Sarda chilensiS c, and -skipjack;, atten^ts at gill netting boni to 

 were made by the Uo So Fishery Mx-ssion to Peru in 19Ul with the 

 vessel Pacific Queen (Fiedler j, JarviSj and Lobell 19lil) Approxi- 

 mately UOO pounds of fish were caught during the 82 hours of the 

 experiment, averaging 12 pounds per net and Uo? pounds per- houro 

 In general, the experiments indicated that it was uneconomical to 

 fish 'vfith gill nets from a boat the size of the Pacific Queeno 



More recently, nylon gill nets were used in an experiment in 

 the Mediterranean Sea by a leading French nylon manitfacturer 

 (Anonymous 1950)0 Fishing was done at the dark of the moon<, 5 to 

 6 fathoms below the surface » The tuna caught weighed from 26 to 

 110 pounds. 



Off the west coast of North America^ gill net experiments for 

 albacore were conducted by the California Division of RLsh and 

 Game on t'oa No B„ Scofield (Anonymoua 1951) o This experiment was 

 made durxng the off season along the southei'n California coast to 

 determine the whereabouts of the albacore rather than to test the 

 method foi' possible commercial use^ and consequently only a few 

 albacore were caught o 



Farther to the north the tuna explorations of the Uo So Fish 

 and Wildlife Service vessel Jghn No Cobb, from June 12 to Septem- 

 ber 28, 1950,9 produced a catch of 169 albacore taken in one set 

 (Powell 195'0)o Aside from this one sizable catch., the experiment 

 in general did not show any xmmediate promise of success on a com- 

 mercial scale o From July 6 to August 9s 1951^ the gill net was 

 again tried by the John No Cobbo Albacore were csaught in only 

 3 of the 13 sets made, with a total catch of 28 fisho 



In Hawaii gill nets were used previous to 1883s, ^^^ their 

 use was limited to catching reef fishes and lobsters (Beckley 1886) o 

 l^ to the time of the present experiment the only recorded attempt to 

 use a drift net for tuna in this area was made by the California 

 Division of Fish and Game vesselj No Bo Scofieldc. on its cruise te 

 to the Hawaiian Islands from July 21 to September 139 19U8 (Godsil 

 and Greenhood 19k9) o Gill net fishing was carried out on an 

 experimental scale but only a few fish were caught. 



DESCRIPTICW OF GEAR 



The drift gill net is designed to catch pelagic fishes swim- 

 ming close to the surface of the water. The depth at which the 

 nets are to fish can be regulated by adjusting the float lines o 

 In effects the net is an upright wall of netting made of a suitable 

 material with an appropriate mesh to permit fish of a certain size 

 to pass only part way through. Usually the fish is caught when 



