Figure 6. --Skipjack caught by pole and line 

 using tilapia as bait, with the stomach 

 opened to show the numerous small tilapia 

 among the stomach contents. 



for the Territory might be increased by 3 to 4 

 million pounds. 



At this point it does not appear that the 

 rearing of tilapia for bait purposes can be done 

 most effectively in water reservoir s and natural 

 ponds with little control over spawning, canni- 

 balistic traits of the species, and predation, and 

 with the difficulty of harvesting the fish effi- 

 ciently at an optimum size. If it is accepted 

 that tilapia are the most promising bait fish to 

 supplement the nehu, then it would appear that 

 studies are needed to determine the economic 

 aspects of rearing these fish in the needed 

 quantities under controlled conditions. 



LITERATURE CITED 



BROCK, V. E. , and M. TAKATA 



1955. Contribution to the problems of bait 

 fish capture and nnortality together 

 with experiments in the use of tilapia 

 as live bait. Territory of Hawaii, 

 Industrial Research Advisory Council 

 Grant No. 49, Final Report. 39 p. 



In some respects tilapia may be slightly 

 inferior to nehu, but, on the other hand, they 

 have several compensating qualities. They are 

 exceedingly hardy fish; they can survive handling 

 and crowding in bait boxes that the nehu cannot 

 tolerate. They can live in a wide range of sa- 

 linities, in low oxygen concentrations, and can 

 be held for indefinite periods in confined 

 quarters. Some information has been obtained 

 indicating that tilapia can be starved and thus 

 held at an optinnum bait size for prolonged 

 periods. Nehu will seldom live longer than a 

 week in the bait boxes of the sampans and fre- 

 quently die of unexplained causes within a day or 

 two after capture. 



CONCLUSIONS 



It is our conclusion that young of Tilapia 

 mossambica are an adequate bait fish for catch- 

 ing skipjack. Our observations indicate that 

 tilapia have a sufficient number of the desirable 

 qualities of a good live-bait fish to alleviate the 

 great need in the Hawaiian skipjack fishery for 

 additional bait supplies , provided they can be pro- 

 duced insufficient amount at a price the industry 

 can afford. If, through supplementing the pres- 

 ent nehu supplies with a substitute bait species, 

 the average fishing time for a sampancan be in- 

 creased from the present 15 days a month to 20 

 days a nnonth, the total annual skipjack catch 



CHEN, TUNG-PAI 



1953. The culture of tilapia in rice paddies 

 in Taiwan. Chinese-American Joint 

 Commission on Rural Reconstruction, 

 Fisheries Series: No. 2, 30 p. 



CHIMITS, P. 



1955. Tilapia and its culture — a preliminary 

 bibliography. FAO Fisheries 

 Bulletin 8(1): 1-33. 



TESTER, A. L. 



1951. The distribution of eggs and larvae 



of the anchovy, Stolephorus 



purpureus Fowler, in Kaneohe Bay, 

 Oahu, with a consideration of the 



sampling problem. Pacific Science 

 5(4): 321-346. 



, H. YUEN, and M. TAKATA 



1954. Reaction of tuna to stimuli, 1953. 

 U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 Spec. Sci. Rept. --Fisheries No. 

 134, 33 p. 



