used if it were available^ for during most years d-^fficulty in obtaining 

 bait limits the tuna catchy particularly during the height of the seasoiio 

 POFI experience in the Hawaiian Islands,^ as detailed in table Ij, cannor. 

 be used as a measure of relative abundance because the most productive 

 baiting areas fished by the commercial fleet were generally avoided o 



The leeward islands of the Hawaiian chain may contain sub- 

 stantial supplies of bait that are not presently utilizedo Baiting 

 operations by the POFI vessels Smith and O'Malley during 1949^ 1950j, 

 and 1951 indicate that the best'~EaTting mi^" be^expected at Midway 

 Island (table l)o French Frigate Shoal s2/ may also be a promising 

 baiting site,, for the Oregon fishing there during January (Smith and 

 and Schaefer L949) and August (Eckles 1949) of 1948 caught approximately 

 lj,315 scoopsui' of lao in about 15 days of baiting there „ POFI baiting 

 operations at Fren'cH~iFrigate Shoals (table 1) were not as successful 

 as those of the Qregon p 



The results of baiting operations by POFI vessels at the 

 Line Islands have been only moderately successful (table 1)„ Both 

 the Oregon and the Calistar were unable to get any appreciable amount 

 of bait til ere either o The Calistar was reported to have obtained only 

 8 scoops of bait-size mullet at Palmyra and the Oregon only 30 scoops 

 of 6-inch mullet at Christmas Island, During the latter part of 1947 

 the Pioneer was reported to have caught 400 scoops of mullet at Palmyra 

 and another 200 scoops at Christmas Islands The sampan Tradewindj, 

 fishing in the vicinity of the Line Islands during January and February 

 of 1953„ caught bait- size mullet as follows" 242 buckets at Palmyra^ 

 85 buckets at Fanning Island, and 19 buckets at Christmas Island, 

 Actually only a limited number of observations on the bait supply at 

 the Line Islands have been made, Christmas Island,, with a circum- 

 ference of 105 milesjis one of the largest atolls in the world and 

 the few observations and attempts at baiting made there have not ade- 

 quately sampled this site. One scouting expedition in June of 1951 

 to the lagoon at Fanning Island located only a few schools of aholeholej, 

 but during February 1953 the Trade wind was able to catch an adequate 

 supply of mullet without any troubleo Past experience has shown that 

 the catchable bait at Palmyra Island is usually exhausted after only 

 a few days of baitingo The other islands and reefs of the Line group 

 do not appear to be suitable baiting sites either because of an insuf- 

 ficient bait supply or because of the difficulty of landingo 



4,/ Owing to bad weather during January and February of 1950, only 6 

 out of 18 days were such that any bait fishing or scouting could 

 be done, 



5/ A scoop is estimated to contain about 10 pounds of fish (Smith 

 and Schaefer 1949), 



