CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 137 



* a familiarity with the fishing areas in this region has increased the 

 average efficiency of purse seine boats over that of several seasons ago, 

 when the purse seine boats first seriously threatened the launch and 

 lighter combinations. Several years ago, it took the average purse seine 

 boat fishing in the Monterey region about three hours to lay out, haul 

 in the net, and load a catch of 50 tons of sardines. Now the same can be 

 accomplished in two hours by the average boat using a purse seine. 



LIGHTED BUOYS 



The lighted buoy has not gained favor as a marker for sardine 

 schools in the Monterey Region. The schools of sardines during the 

 greater part of the season are readily located and judged by the lumin- 

 escent areas that they produce. However, in the San Francisco region, 

 marker buoys are more popular due to the much reduced or entire 

 absence of luminescence (due to Golden Gate drainage). With reduced 

 or absence of luminescence, schools are located mainly by the splashing 

 that accompanies sardines feeding at the surface of the ocean. 



SUCTION PUMP TRIED EXPERIMENTALLY ON FISHING BOAT 



A suction pump as an aid to unloading the catch from the net 

 into the hold of the purse seine boat was first experimented with in 

 the Monterey Region during the latter part of the 1931-32 season on 

 the purse seine boat Pal. The apparatus did not prove satisfactory 

 and was revised by the inventor. It was tried again during the early 

 part of the 1933-34 season on the purse seine boat Olympic, but again 

 found unsatisfactory. The principle of this apparatus is the same as 

 that of the centrifugal suction pumps that are used by all but one 

 of the Monterey sardine plants for unloading boats in deep water. 



The long bag dip-net (see Fig. 2), now common equipment of 

 purse seine boats, is a simple, inexpensive, fool-proof means of unload- 

 ing the catch from the net into the hold of the boat. These large dip 

 nets can hold as much as 2^ tons and will unload as much as 80 tons 

 per hour from net into boat. This long bag dip-net, however, is not 

 used in unloading the boat at the processing plants. The shallow dip- 

 net or ''brail" (see Fig. 3) is used alike for this purpose by purse 

 seine boats and launch and lighter combinations. The shallow dip- 

 net or "brail" is emptied in a manner opposite to that used with the 

 long bag dip-net. The former is emptied by allowing the weight of 

 the contents to force open the bottom of the net when the purse chain is 

 slackened. The bottom of the net is kept closed while the net is being 

 dipped full, by pursing the bottom of the net by means of the chain 

 that runs through a series of small rings around the bottom edge of 

 the net. On the other hand, the long bag dip-net is em})tied through 

 the same opening by which it is filled. After the long bag has been 

 filled by guiding the mouth or hoop of the dip net into the bunched 

 fish, the hoop is placed perpendicular to the edge of the hold of the 

 boat and the end of the bag hoisted. The hoisting is accomplished when 

 the rope, that is fastened to the end of the bag and which passes 

 through an overhead block at the end of the boom, is reeled in on a 

 revolving drum. 



5—10775 



