36 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
water, and are powered with 16 to 20 horsepower engines. Each 
power boat has a crew of three men and tows a skiff about 20 feet 
long, which carries half of the nets. 
In fishing the seine, the power boats first come together, jom the 
ends of the sections of the seine, and commence to run in opposite 
directions, letting out the nets, section by section, until all eight 
seines—four from each tow skiff—have been let over the side. The 
seine is then slowly hauled in a shallow semicircle for approximately 
three-fourths of a mile. When the power boats reach the shallow 
water they come together and the staffs at the ends of the seines are 
fastened together, thus making a circle about 1,200 yards in circum- 
ference. (See figs. 4 and 5.) 

Fic. 5—Long-haul seining. The haul is here completed and the men are bailing the catch from the 
unt net into the boats 
After the circle is completed, two men in each of the tow skiffs 
untie the staffs that fasten the end pair of nets, the power boats 
take the ends of the second pair on each side, one at a time, and con- 
tinue hauling to “cut out’ or to remove the nets from the circle. 
Similarly, the second pair are replaced by the third pair, and the third 
pair by the fourth, so that the circle finally is reduced to a single 
pair of nets, each 150 yards long. The bunt net is then fastened to 
the farther staff of one of the last pair of nets and is laid out in the 
position of one of the fourth pair while that net is taken into the 
skiff. The remaining fourth seine is then hauled by power or by 
hand, depending on the depth of water, past the inward staff, until 
the two staffs of the bunt net are brought together. The final 
hauling of the net is performed by hand while one man holds down the 
lead line with his foot so as to keep the gap completely closed at the 
bottom. When the bunt net has been pulled in far enough (depending 
on the quantity of fish taken) hauling on the cork line is stopped and 
the lead line is hauled past the staff until all of it is landed in the skiff. 
This completed, the fish are secured beyond danger of escape, and 
they are easily bailed into one of the skiffs. Everything is landed 
except sharks and stingrays or occasional catches of large drum. 
