THIRTY-NINTH BIENNIAL REPORT 25 



TUNA 



Security restrictions and a shortage of boats hampered the tuna 

 fishery during the early part of American participation in the war. How- 

 ever, by 1944 the rigid security regulations had been relaxed somewhat, 

 and new boats had entered the fishery, so that the high seas fleet was able 

 to make greater catches of yellowfin tuna. The improved yellowfin fishery 

 coupled with exceptionally good catches of albacore and bluefin resulted 

 in total tuna landings almost as great as those of the j^ears immediately 

 preceding the war. The 1945 catch of the four most important species of 

 tuna (yellowfin, albacore, bluefin, and skipjack) amounted to 163,000,000 

 pounds. This figure has been exceeded only in 1939 and 1940 when land- 

 ings of approximately 165,000,000 and 196,000,000 pounds, respectively, 

 were recorded. 



I ft\bacofe. 



iTi c C * 



Figure 4. California landings of Yellowfin tuna, Skipjack, Albacore and Bluefin 

 tuna, 1936-1945. Graph includes catches made by California boats and shipments from 

 Oregon, W^ashington and Latin America; shipments from Japan, 1936-1941, are not 

 included. 



Catches of the five species of tuna in 1944 and 1945 are shown in 

 Table VII. The case pack of tuna for the same years is presented in Table 

 VIII. Production of canned tuna was supplemented by yellowtail which 

 was packed tuna-style in the following amounts : 19,848 cases in 1944, 

 and 17,336 cases in 1945. Tuna canneries are located at San Diego and 

 Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor. (See Tables VII and VIII, appendix, 

 pages 104, 105.) 



Tuna Investigations: During the war years the entire staff 

 assigned to the tuna investigation left state service, with the result that 

 research came to a standstill. Shortly before the close of the biennium the 

 man who had been in charge of the investigations returned from war serv- 

 ice, and work was resumed on the analysis of boat catches and on the racial 

 composition of the tuna populations. 



