Big Game at Sea 



The fish was new to me, and upon sending a photo- 

 graph to Dr. Jordan, he wrote me that the fish was a 

 most interesting visitor, or as he put it, " one more 

 bond which bound us to Japan," or words to that 

 effect. The fish hitherto had been known only in the 

 ports of Japan and rarely at Honolulu, but never had 

 been reported from American shores. It is known to 

 science as Germo macropterus , and is a species of alba- 

 core, a cousin of the tuna.* 



Having no common name, I called it the Japanese 

 Albacore, and by any other name it would have been 

 just as interesting; but the term was justified by the fact 

 that it had been known for a long time in Japan. The 

 fish so resembled the tuna that the boatman assumed 

 .that it was a tuna and called it the u yellow-finned 

 tuna," by which name the interesting fish will go down 

 to fame, and with some excuse, as when compared 

 superficially to the tuna it resembles it much more than 

 it does its generic relative. This was in 1904, and 

 ever since the new tuna, with its vivid lemon finlets, 

 has appeared every August or September in vast num- 

 bers, affording a sport never dreamed of, for the sim- 

 ple reason that, being smaller than the tuna, averaging 

 about fifty pounds, they are much easier to catch. 



The capture of the large and true tuna, the most 

 difficult of all fishes (if in good condition) to catch, 

 is an event even in Southern California, and out of 

 thousands who have made the attempt there are not 



*Dr. Jordan now considers it a tuna. (Tbunnus macropterus.) 

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