after albacore. The vertical distribution of 

 Alepisaurus catches, as evidenced by longline 

 hook numbers, closely paralleled that of alba- 

 core catches. The abundance of the two species 

 in the longline catches, however, appeared to be 

 inversely correlated. Indications of a similar 

 inverse correlation were found in published 

 American data on experimental longline fishing 

 in the northern and equatorial central Pacific. 



Legand has previously reported that 

 Alepisaurus sp. is an important component of 

 albacore stomach contents in New Caledonian 

 waters. Numerical and volumetric data on 

 Alepisaurus stomach content composition pre- 

 sented in this paper show that Alepisaurus is an 

 excellent collector of a wide variety of plankters 

 and bathypelagic fishes. Squid and fishpredom- 

 inate in volume; crustaceans are present in im- 

 portant numbers but in small volum.e. Sonne of 

 the leading constituents of Alepisaurus stomach 

 contents, such as Alepisaurus and Sternoptyx 

 diaphana, have also been prominent in the stom- 

 achs of albacore from New Caledonian waters. 



No important seasonal difference in 

 either total volume or composition was seen in 

 either species. Yellowfin differed from alba- 

 core in the considerably greater proportion of 

 fish in their diet and in the greater relative as 

 well as absolute volume of their stomach con- 

 tents (1. 68 cc. per kg. of body weight as com - 

 pared with 0. 73 cc. for albacore). The average 

 amount of squid consumed by albacore appeared 

 to increase offshore but the opposite trend was 

 shown by yellowfin. 



Alepisaurus sp. was the fish that occur- 

 red most frequently in the stomachs of both 

 albacore (60 percent) and yellowfin (40 percent) , 

 and the bramid-pteraclid group of fishes was 

 important in the diet of both species. Ostracion 

 sp. , which is also prominent in the diet of troll- 

 caught yellowfin from the New Caledonia coast, 

 was found in 45 percent of the yellowfin stomachs 

 but in only 20 percent of the albacore. 



The crustaceans eaten by both species 

 of tuna were primarily decapods. 



The a u t h o r s suggest that the apparent 

 inverse correlation of albacore and Alepisaurus 

 catches may result from an exclusion due in part 

 to predation by the former on the latter and in 

 part to competition for prey between the two 

 species. 



Legand. M. 



Contenus stomacaux desalbacores et 

 yellowfins captures a la longue-ligne 

 par l' Orsom III . /Conference Paper 

 VII -15.7 Tin Legand, M. and 



B. Wauthy. In Press. Premieres 

 donnees sur l'albacore et les poissons 

 de longue-ligne en Nouvelle -Caledonie . 

 Centre de Oceanogr aphie , Institut 

 Francais d ' Oceanie /NoumeaJ, Rap- 

 port Scientifique No. 24. ) 



The stomachs examined were those of 

 117 albacore and 43 yellowfin from the longline 

 catches dealt with in the author's paper "Taille, 

 repartition sexuelle, cycle annuel de l'albacore 

 dans l'ouestde la Nouvelle -Caledonie. " The 

 average weights of these tuna were 21 kg. for the 

 albacore and 45 kg. for the yellowfin. 



The average total volume of stomach 

 contents for the albacore was 14. 7 cc. , the 

 composition by volume being 45.4 percent fish, 

 44. 6 percent squid, and 10. percent crustaceans. 

 The yellowfin stomachs contained on the average 

 80. 6 cc. , of which 78. 2 percent was fish, 1 6. 4 

 percent squid, and 5.4 percent crustaceans. 



Legand, M. 



Taille, repartition sexuelle, cycle annuel 

 de l'albacore dans l'ouest de la 

 Nouvelle -Caledonie. /Conference 

 Paper VII - 16. J (In Legand, M. and 

 B. Wauthy. In Press. Premieres 

 donnees sur l'albacore et les poissons 

 de longue-ligne. Centre d'Oceano- 

 graphie, Institut Francais d'Oceanie, 

 Noumea, Nouvelle -Caledonie, Rapport 

 Scientifique No. 24. ) 



From 1959 to July 1961 experimental 

 tuna longline fishing from the ORSOM III at 24 

 stations took 140 albacore within 200 miles of 

 the southwest coast of New Caledonia, between 

 21°30' S. and 24° S. , using 7-hook units 500 m. 

 long. Numbers of albacore per 100 hooks fished 

 were 1.5 to 5.0, exceptionally 10.0. 



The lengths ranged from 825 to 1075 mm. 

 There was a significant difference in size between 

 the sexes; the males averaged 966 mm. and 

 20. 6 kg. , the females 930 mm. and 18. 8 kg . 

 The average size of the albacore captured was 

 significantly greater in summer than winter, 

 although there was no important seasonal depar - 

 turefrom the overall average sex ratio, which 

 gave 27.5 percent females. One example of 

 hermaphroditism was found. 



The seasonal trend of the ovary volume 

 to body length relationship indicated summer 

 (December- January) spawning. Five ovary 



