present time. In 1951 and 1952 the exploratory fishing vessel Oregon of 

 the Fish and Wildlife Service reported extensive schools of tunas in the 

 central Gulf of Mexico. Since 1951 interest in the tuna resources of 

 the offshore areas of the Gulf and Caribbean has greatly increased. 



QUANTITIES AND SPECIES AVAILABLE I N THE GULF AND CARIBEEAN 



Tunas have been reported in the region many times, particularly in 

 the Caribbeanj but observations of large numbers have been relatively few. 

 Comnercial fishermen on the Atlantic coast are familiar with the blue fin 

 and fishermen of both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are familiar with the 

 little tuna. Other tunas ordinarily occur in waters outside the areas of 

 customary fishing activdty. Commercial fishermen of the Atlantic and 

 Gulf States generally do not distinguish little tuna, from other species 

 of small tunas when they observe them in the water. It has been noted 

 (^Vhiteleather and Brown, 1945)jthat even in fish markets of Trinidad lit- 

 tle distinction is made between the relatively dark meat little tuna and 

 the light meat blackfin. Because of the relatively lower quality of the 

 little tuna and because only limited local markets have existed, the spe- 

 cies has been of comparatively little interest to com.iercial fishermen. 

 The prevailing opinion that tuna stocks in the western North Atlantic 

 were insufficient to support a large fishing operation has been altered 

 somewhat since 1951 when large numbers of blackfin were reported by the 

 exploratory fishing vessel Oregon in the central Gulf of Mexico. Subse- 

 quent exploratory work in the Gulf of Mexico and a re-examination of re- 

 ports of tuna in the Caribbean leads to the conclusion that large stocks 

 of tuna exist in that area. 



A point of special interest to the American fishery is that what up 

 to now appears to be the commonest Gulf and Caribbean pelagic tuna, the 

 blackfin, is taken by the Cuban fishery with live bait (Rawlings,1953) « 

 Furthermore^ two other tunas reported offshore in the Gulf by the Oregon , 

 the yellowfin and the (white) skipjack, are either closely allied to, or 

 identical to tunas making up the bulk of the catch of the American tuna 

 fishery in the Pacific, where the majority are taken with live bait. 



The presence of large stocks of tuna does not necessarily insure 

 that large catches are available to the fishermen. There are some obvi- 

 ous difficulties to fishing in the Gulf and Caribbean area. The tunas do 

 not show at the surface often as compared to tunas in the American Pac- 

 ific fishery. Weather conditions for tuna fishing generally are not so 

 favorable as in the Tropical ll.otern Pacific. Most important, however, 

 is that comparatively little is known of the movements and habits of the 

 pelagic tunas of the Gulf and Caribbean, 



The tunas known from the Gulf and Caribbean area are listed in 

 table 72 „ The relative abundance of the species cannot be determined 

 from the data available, but the three species of most interest to the 

 live bait fishery, the blackfin, the yellowfin, and the (white; skipjack, 

 are found at some seasons over the entire Gulf and Caribbean area in 

 blue waters off the continental shelf. 



256 



