CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 135 



liyliter combinations. Most of the chartered boats were from Wash- 

 ington waters, the balance from southern California waters. Ordi- 

 narily, the original captain and engineer accompanied the chartered 

 boat, the balance of the crew being made up by the charterer. (The 

 crew usually consists of 10 men and the captain.) The charterer 

 usually furnished the net. However, sometimes only the engineer 

 accompanied the chartered boat but occasionally several of the original 

 crew went along with the captain. 



PURSE SEINES AND RING NETS 



All deliveries of sardines to processing plants at Monterey were 

 made by boats using purse nets, except in one case at the beginning of 

 the season when a small delivery was made to one of the plants by a 

 market crew that used a lampara net. The purse nets are of the purse 

 seine type used largely by the purse seine boats, and of the ring net 

 type that the launch and lighter combination crews adopted a few 

 seasons ago in place of the lampara net formerly used. 



During the current season, only two of the purse seine boats used 

 a ring net instead of the purse seine. These were two of the smallest 

 purse seine boats that can not be readily adapted to the use of the 

 heavier purse seine. Since the ring net was adopted in a wholesale 

 manner by the launch and lighter combinations and by many of the 

 purse seine boats at Monterey in the 1929-30 season, it has come to 

 resemble the purse seine to a very great degree, especially when used 

 on the purse seine boats. Now that tanned purse seines are gaining 

 favor with the purse seine crews at Monterey in place of tarred purse 

 seines, about the only remaining difference between the purse seine 

 and the ring net is in the rounded or tapered ends of the latter, the 

 cork and lead lines being joined to form a single pull rope in the latter. 

 In the purse seine the ends are square, the cork line and the lead line 

 extending parallel beyond the ends of the net to form separate pull 

 ropes. Ordinarily, the ring net is also constructed of lighter webbing. 



Ring nets have been losing favor steadily with the crews of the 

 purse seine boats since the 1930-31 season, when almost 50 per cent 

 of these crews were using the ring net. Fishermen have found that 

 the lower initial cost of this net does not offset the constant care auid 

 repair required because of the lighter construction. 



TANNED vs. TARRED PURSE SEINES 



Purse seine boats at Monterey are finding that tanned purse seines 

 are not only cheaper to operate than the conventional tarred purse 

 seine but are also easier to handle and thereby speed up hauling opera- 

 tions. The only objection is that the tanned purse seine requires a 

 periodic tanning treatment so as to lengthen its lasting qualities. Dur- 

 ing intensive fishing the tanning treatment should be performed at 

 least once a month. The logical time for this is during the few days' 

 lull in fishing activities at full moon period, when hard-working crews 

 like to take a well-earned rest on shore. Nevertheless, the double life 

 of the tanned net over the tarred net and the easier operation and the 

 speeding up of hauling operations are becoming the deciding factors. 



A few crews experimented with tanned purse seines last season, 

 and this season about one-quarter of the fleet used the tanned seines, 



