WHERE TUNA ARE AVAIUBLE AND ARE NOT FISHED BY D OMESTIC 

 CCMMERCIAL FISHERMEN. IS IT LIKELY THAT A COtMERCIAL 

 FISHERY ^VILL BE DEVELOPED BY UNITED STATES INDUSTRY? 



Atlantic Coast 



BACKGROUND OF ATLANTIC COAST TUNA FISHING 



Reports of bluefin in Atlantic coastal waters and particularly 

 off New England date back many years. Fishermen on Cape Cod were 

 catching them in traps as early as the 1880' So The large bluefin, 

 referred to in the past as "horse mackerel", have also been sought by 

 sport fishermen for the past few decades. Bluefin are present in New 

 England waters from June to October and are taken by various forms of 

 fishing gear from waters south of Cape Cod and north as far as Nova 

 Scotia. Over the years, landings from Cape Cod Bay trap and pound 

 nets have accounted for the bulk of New England tuna production, with 

 catches by small vessels using harpoons, and sportsmen accounting for 

 a small part. The fishing has been on a small scale compared to the 

 Pacific coast tuna industry. 



Efforts to increase the exploitation of New England bluefin have 

 been made several times, with limited success. From 1938 to 1941 a 

 small numiber of Gloucester mackerel seiners and one Pacific ooast seine 

 boat tried purse seining for bluefin and achieved fair success. Indi- 

 vidual landings up to 100,000 pounds were made. The venture was aban- 

 doned after the 1941 season, principally because of an unsteady market 

 and low prices offered by the fish buyers of the regiono 



During 1950, interest in the possibility of establishing a tuna 

 processing industry utilizing Maine sardine -canning plants during 

 periods of normal off-season shutdowns led to an appropriation of funds 

 by the Federal Government for the investigation of the commercial po- 

 tentialities of bluefin in the Gulf of Maine by the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service. The first year's exploratory fishing program,, utxlising a 

 purse seiner, was carried out from ^une to October, 1951 (Murray, 1952) . 

 Objectives were: (l) to determine the location, extent,, and range of 

 bluefin tuna concentrations in Mew England coastal waters during the 

 summer and fall seasons; (2) to determine whether the bluefin tuna are 

 consistently available in sufficient quantities to warrant expanded 



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