tuna at the Line Islands (Smith and Schaefer 1949) and only 186 tuna, 

 mostly skipjackp in the vicinity of the Hawaii^.n Islands (Eckles 

 1949 )« The commercial tuna clipper Calistar„/, fishing in the vicinity 

 of the Line Islands during February of l9i^7 caught approximately 50 

 tons of yellowfin at Fanning Island and another 15 tons of yellowfin 

 at Palmyra Island, The Pioneer., during the latter part of 1947 „ caught 

 7 tons of yellowfinj, mostly around Fanning and Christmas islands o 

 During January and February of 1953 the Tradgwind caught 7 tons of 

 yellowfin at Palmyra Island and another '6-1/2 tons at Fanning Island, 



The results of live-bait fishing in the central PacifiCj, as 

 conducted by POFI (table 2)^ indicate that the most promising unex- 

 ploited area in the central Pacific is the Line Islands^ where less 

 time spent scouting and fishing for tuna resulted in the greatest 

 catch„ Furthermore J, practically all of the catch from the Line Islands 

 was the more desirable yellowfin tuna (see table 3)<, The Phoenix 

 Islands area, where the bulk of the catch is also yellowfin, appears 

 less promisingo The Hawaiian Islands catch is almost all skipjackj, 

 with only a very small amount of yellowfin caught. There are not 

 enough data available to evaluate the leeward Hawaiian Islands, 



There are other factors besides the total tuna catch which 

 indicate that the Line Islands is the most promising area for future 

 expansion, A greater percentage of the fish schools sighted there 

 exhibited behavior that permitted the vessel to get into a chumming 

 position. Furthermore p nearly 50 percent of the schools chummed at 

 the Line Islands yielded fishj, as compared with 23 percent and 32 

 percent for the Phoenix and Hawaiian islands respectively (table 2), 

 Consistently greater catches of tuna were made from each individual 

 school at the Line Islands, On the other hand, there were more schools 

 of fish seen per unit time of fishing and scouting at the Phoenix 

 Islands than at the other two areas, but only a relatively small pro- 

 portion of these could be fished. Another factor favoring the Line 

 Islands area is its relative proximity to the Hawaiian Islands, 

 Palmyra Island is approximately 960 miles from Honolulu, 



LOCATING SCHOOLS 



The majority of the tuna schools were located through 

 their association with flocks of birds. Only on rare occasions 

 were the schools sighted by POFI vessels located by "breezing** or 



7/ The Calistar baited up with li,800 scoops of anchovetas from 

 ~~ Magdalena Bay, Lower California^ before going to the Line 

 Islands, 



11 



