152 EIGHTH PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS 



of the dependence of the fishery on the seasonal, inshore occurrence of 

 the fish, which varies a good deal from year to year, probably in re- 

 sponse to variations in oceanographic factors, the success of the fishery 

 varies widely, the variability increasing as one goes north. Present 

 magnitude of the fishery is indicated by the statistics fox- 1950, when 

 73 million pounds were landed, 62 million of these in California. 



On the western side of the Pacific, tuna fishing is much oldei. Fish- 

 ing foi tunas in the waters adjacent to Japan has been engaged in by 

 fishermen of that nation since ancient times. Not until the introduction 

 of motorized fishing vessels in the first decade of the present century, 

 however, did the fishery begin to assume any large proportion, so that 

 the development of the modern fishery is contemporary with that of 

 the Eastern Pacific. 



The "summer" albacore fishery, in the adjacent seas of Japan, is 

 similar to the fishery in the Eastern Pacific. It depends on schools of 

 fish which appear in inshore waters about April or May, reach their 

 greatest abundance in about June, and disappear in the late summer 

 or fall. 



Albacore, and other tunas as well, are also fished in Japan in sub- 

 surface waters by means of floating long-lines. The long line fishery 

 for albacore has, as a result of explorations by Japanese research vessels, 

 been extended eastward to the longitude of the Hawaiian Islands. 

 The long-line fishery has its greatest success during the winter months 

 and appears, according to Uda and Tokunaga (1937), to be most pro- 

 ductive in the region of the North Pacific convergence near latitude 

 30°N. 



Albacore is not a preferred species for domestic consumption in 

 japan, but finds a ready market in the United States. Therefore, much 

 of the catch is exported either as canned tuna, or as frozen tuna which 

 is canned in the United States. The Japanese albacore catch in 1950 

 aniounted .to 65 million pounds, and was nearly double that amount 

 in 1952. 



Small quantities of large albacore are captured on long-lines by 

 the local fishery in the Hawaiian Islands, incidental to fishing for yel- 

 lowfin and bigeye tuna. Small commercial quantities are fished off 

 Chile and southern Peru. 



The albacore fisheries of the Pacific appear to be capable of con- 

 siderable expansion, both by development of fisheries in the southern 

 hemisphere, which are now little exploited, and by further offshore 

 development of the North Pacific fisheries. Exploration of the offshore 

 distribution of albacore in the Northeastern Pacific is planned to be 

 undertaken during the coming winter by agencies of the U. S. Govern- 



