from Costa Rice (the Gulf of Nicoya) in 19U8, said to be due to a 

 natioral disaster, a "red tide", removed at least temporarily this 

 abundant supply of bait from the tuna fleeto 



Bait Supply Situation 



In general bait supplies during 1951 and 1952 have been ade- 

 quate for the United States tuna fleet, A good many of the bait 

 species are known to fluctuate vjidely at various times and places. 

 There have been times, it is truej when boats have been materially 

 delayed for lack of baito As an example of natural fluctuating 

 supply, there is the sardine situation in the Galapagos Islands » 

 In the 1950-51 season sardines were plentiful; in 1951-52 they were 

 scarcej and to date in the 1952-53 season, plentifulo Similar oc- 

 currences may be found in other baiting areas o 



While the physical supply of bait has been adequate, the incon- 

 venience and uncertainty occasioned by foreign control of the supply 

 must be recognized. With some countries such as Mexico, arrangements 

 exist to the mutual satisfaction of the foreign country and the 

 American tuna fleet. In other countries, there are partial or com- 

 plete closures of baiting grounds and sometimes sudden unanticipated 

 closiires. In addition, there are involved the matters of licenses 

 and fees in order to obtain baito Sometimes the problem of securing 

 physical possession of the necessary foreign license causes consid- 

 erable inconvenience to United States vessels . At the present time 

 it appears that smoothing out the international complications con- 

 cerning utilization by the United States fleet of available foreign 

 bait in a manner mutually satisfactory and beneficial to the foreign 

 countries and the United States is relatively more Important than the 

 matter of physical availability of bait. 



Future Problems and Bait Research 



Aside from the matter of inteniational relations mentioned 

 above, such questions as these await answers in the future: The 

 amount of fishing pressure which the various bait stocks can with- 

 stand and the degree of bait fishing intensity that can be tolerated 

 without introducing the problem of overfishing. Present knowledge 

 provides no answers to such questions. 



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