COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol. 28, No. 10 



more steel vessels of greater horsepower. 

 Local shipyards built 14 new vessels for the 

 Alabama fishing fleet during 1965. 



Alaska 



PINK SALMON FISHING EXCELLENT 

 IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA 



The Alaska Department of Fish and Game 

 in July 1966 extended fishing periods in many 

 areas of southeast Alaska in order to harvest 

 the bountiful run of pink salmon. The best 

 fishing spot at that time was Frederick Sound, 

 where purse seiners were enjoying excellent 

 catches. 



KODIAK SALMON CANNERIES 

 AT PEAK ACTIVITY 



Kodiak has been experiencing one of the 

 best salmon seasons on record. As of July 

 31, 1966, the pack had reached 443,000 cases. 

 By comparison the 1962 pack, which was the 

 highest in over 20 years (711,900 cases), 

 announted to only 346,000 cases by July 31 of 

 that year. If the salmon run were to holdup, 

 it was believed that 1966 could just be thebest 

 season since 1939. 



California 



1966 SHRIMP FISHING SEASON OFF 

 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLOSES 



Commercial shrimp fishing in Area A, 

 extending from False Cape, Calif., to the 

 Oregon-California border, was closed by the 

 California Department of Fish and Game 

 effective August 8, when the catch quota of 

 1,250,000 pounds for the 1966 season was 

 reached. 



The Fish Commission of Oregon cooper- 

 ated with California by making it unlawful to 

 land or have in possession shrimp taken from 

 the waters of the Pacific Ocean south of 42° 

 N. latitude (Oregon-California boundary line) 

 from midnight August 10, 1966, to May 1, 

 1967. 



The closure to shrimp fishing off the Cali- 

 fornia coast had no effect on shrimp fishing 

 off the Oregon coast. Oregon's 1966 shrimp 

 season was not scheduled to close until Octo- 

 ber 31, 1966. (Oregon Fish Commission, Au- 

 gust 8, 1966.) 



Note: See Commercial Fisheries Review, October 196S p. 48. 



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SURVEYS PELAGIC FISH POPULATION 



For 3 weeks in June, the Department of 

 Fish and Game's research vessel M/V Alaska 

 explored the coastal waters off southern Cali- 

 fornia and northern Baja California, Mexico -- 

 from San Martin Island to Point Conception 

 and seaward to the 1,000-fathom depth contour. 

 Objectives: (1) To survey schooling fish of 

 pelagic environment in California Current 

 System using echo sounder and midwater 

 trawl; (2) to develop techniques for making 

 this type of survey routine. 



During the cruise, echo sounder transect 

 lines were traversed from shore to the 1,000- 

 fathom contour; hourly fixes were plotted, 

 and the number of schools detected were en- 

 tered between fixes; records were kept of 

 visual "breezing" schools during day and "fire- 

 ball" schools at night; a small midwater trawl 

 was fished for species identification and sam- 

 pling, and hourly sea surface temperature 

 records were kept, together with fish school 

 counts and vessel location. 



The echo sounder covered 1,910 miles and 

 detected 752 northern anchovy ( Engraulis 

 mordax), 17 jack mackerel ( Trachurus sym- 

 metricus ), 9 Pacific hake (Merluccius pro- 

 ductus ), and one Pacific bonito ( Sarda chi- 

 liensis) schools; 134 other anchovy schools 

 were seen. • 



Northern Anchovies: Anchovies were by 

 far the most abundant and widely distributed 

 species. They appeared as "plumes" on the 

 echo sounder at depths from 5 to 80 fathoms, 

 with most schools at 8 to 14 fathoms. Sight- 

 ings, compared with echo traces from the 

 same school, indicated some schools probably 

 contained 15 or more tons. 



In northern Baja California waters, echo 

 sounding traversed 416 mi,les and detected 52 

 anchovy schools. Fish were very scarce except 

 in Todos Santos and Soledad Bays. In Soledad 

 Bay extremely large concentrations were pres - 

 ent. During night-time visual scouting. 



