Albacore are known to be present in the offshore North Pacific 

 past the range of the present fishery. Occasional catches have 

 been made thousands of miles from land between Hawaii and the 

 Pacific coasto Japanese long-line expeditions in the North Pacific 

 extending as far east as waters north of Midway Island yielded 

 productive fishing over wide areas o The American albacore fishery 

 is shore-bound to the Pacific coast, and no organized commercial 

 fishing and very little experimental fishing have ever been carried 

 out in the vast expanse of water between Hawaii arxi California, 

 Future exploration may reveal whether substantial stocks of 

 albacore inhabit the waters of the eastern North Pacific gyral 

 and if they are available there as they are further west in the 

 Japanese fishery. 



AVAILABILITY OF LOCAL FLEET AND FISHERMEN 



The local Hawaiian tuna fleet, or portions thereof, would be 

 readily adaptable to any expanded operations in the immediate 

 vicinity. Limited range, capacity, and icing facilities of the 

 fleet would necessitate a mothership or some shore-side facilities 

 in the Line Islands or Phoenix Islands, where the resource is con- 

 sidered too limted for clipper-iype vessels.. 



For exploitation of the large stock of sub-surface tiinas in 

 the equatorial region south of Hawaii, the small Hawaiian tuna 

 fleet would be of limited value. It could be used only with some 

 type of mothership support. Large seiners or clippers from the 

 Pacific coast, adapted for long-line fishing would be needed for 

 independent operation. Some local fishermen would be available 

 to partially man such vessels o 



AVAIUBILITY OF BAIT 



Limited supplies of bait are known to exist near the Islands, 

 but final evaluation of abundance awaits long-term attempts to 

 exploit the tuna resource. Some experimental trips to the Line 

 and Phoenix Island Area have been hampered by the apparent 

 inconsistency of available live bait. Bait does not present a 

 problem to long-line fishing. Frozen sardines, herring and squid 

 from the United States Pacific coast are all suitable for this type 

 of fishing o 



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