OCEANOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS MADE DURING A COOPERATIVE SURVEY 

 OF ALBACORE ( THUNNUS GERMO ) OFF THE NORTH AMERICAN 



WEST COAST IN 1959 



By 



Joseph J. Graham J:' 

 Fishery Research Biologist 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 Biological Laboratory, Honolulu, Hawaii 



and 



William L. Craig 

 Marine Biologist 

 Marine Resources Operations 

 California Department of Fish and Game 



The North American westcoast fisheryfor 

 albacore, Thunnus germo (Lacgp^de) , usually 

 extends from central Baja California, Mexico, 

 to central California, but at times it has extend- 

 ed as far north as Queen Charlotte Island, Can- 

 ada. The fishery begins during the spring and 

 early summer off the coast of Baja California 

 and southern California and reaches its peak 

 there around August (Clemens, 1955). In the 

 late summer and fall, the fishery shifts north- 

 ward to central California and during some years 

 develops off the coasts of Oregon and Washing- 

 ton (Powell et al. , 1952). By winter, fishing 

 is usually ended, although in some years a smiall 

 winter fishery develops (Pacific Fisherman, 

 1956; California Department of Fish and Game, 

 1949). 



The success of the summer fishery in any 

 given year depends in part on how readily the 

 commercial fishermen are able to locate con- 

 centrations of fish early in the season. With 

 this in mind, a cooperative preseason survey of 

 the west coast albacore fishing grounds was con- 

 ducted in 1959 by the Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries Biological Laboratory , Honolulu, 

 Hawaii, and the California Department of Fish 

 and Game. The intention was to locate the mi- 

 gration route of albacore into west coast waters 

 and the areas of commiercial concentration. This 

 paper presents the meteorological , physical 

 oceanographic, and biological data obtained and 

 describes the methods used to collect them. 

 Exploratory fishing results are the subject of 

 another report (Craig and Graham, 1961). 



1/ Presently employed as Supervisory 

 Fishery Biologist, Bureau of Commiercial Fish- 

 eries Biological Laboratory, Galveston, Texas. 



ITINERARY 



Cruise 52 of the Bureau of Comimercial 

 Fisheries vessel Hugh M. Smith and cruise 59S4 

 of the California Department of Fish and Game 

 vessel N. B ■ Scofield covered areas off Califor- 

 nia and northern Baja California. The cruise 

 tracks for the two vessels are shown in figures 

 1 and 2. The Hugh M. Smith (fig. 1) departed 

 Honolulu on April 28 and proceeded to Point A 

 (39° N. , 135° W.). After reaching this point 

 the cruise was interrupted on May 11 because of 

 illness of a crewman, who was taken to San Fran- 

 cisco. On May 17 the cruise was resunned at 

 the point where it had been interrupted. Because 

 of the loss of time during the emergency run to 

 San Francisco, a series of stations planned for 

 the track between point D (27° N. , 118° 30' W.) 

 and San Diego was omitted. The Smith arrived 

 at San Diego on May 27. The second portion of 

 the survey (fig. 1, bottom panel) was begun on 

 May 30 and was completed on June 19. 



The Scofield departed Los Angeles harbor 

 on June 1. After a brief stopover at Santa Bar- 

 bara to obtain certain scientific equipmient, the 

 Scofield proceeded along the track shown in fig- 

 ure 2. The cruise was completed on June 25. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



Marine weather observations were record- 

 ed daily by scientists aboard the Smith at 0000', 

 0600, 1200, and 1800 GCT and were transmitted 

 daily to the U. S. Weather Bureau (table 1). 

 Standard weather data were entered in the bathy- 

 thermograph logs aboard both vessels (tables 2 

 and 3). 



One storm, with maximum wind velocities 

 of force 7, occurred within the 48 -day cruise 

 period of the Smith. During 10 percent of the 



