November 1966 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



17 



North Pacific Explorations 

 and Gear Development 



COBB CRUISES FIND 



ONLY SMALL HAKE SCHOOLS 



Unlike 1964 and 1965, cruises by the John 

 N. Cobb did not turnup large schools of hake 

 off the Washington Coast. Cruise 79 ended 

 August 5, and Cruise 80 ended September 2, 

 after 3 weeks of exploratory fishing off Pa- 

 cific Coast between Vancouver, B. C, and 

 northern Oregon. The largest schools found 

 were in the areas being fished by Soviet trawl- 

 ers. The 4 United States vessels that are 

 midwater trawling for hake have had to fish 

 away from the main Soviet fleet on small and 

 scattered schools. Landings by these 4 ves- 

 sels totaled about 1,200 tons of hake through 

 August 29. Gear research personnel have 

 spent much time aboard our hake vessels at 

 sea observing the performance of midwater 

 trawls and BCF -installed telemetry systems. 



For more information, contact BCF Pa- 

 cific Northwest Region, 6116 Arcade Bldg., 

 Seattle, Wash. 98101. 



South Atlantic Fisheries Investigations 

 and Gear Development 



OREGON LONGLINES FOR SWORDFISH 

 OFF FLORIDA'S EAST- COAST 



The R/V Oregon completed an 11 -day ex- 

 ploratory cruise off Florida's east coast to 

 conduct seasonal fishing with longline gear 

 for swordfish ( Xiphias gladius) and with 

 trawls for bottomfish concentrations. It re- 

 turned to St. Simons Island, Georgia, on August 

 27. (Cruise 111, August 16-27.) 



Five 60 -basket (600 hooks) longline sets 

 were made between 27° N and 30° N. Buoy 

 drops on each set varied from 5 to 50 fathoms 

 spaced at 10 -basket intervals. Hooks were 

 baited with thread herring (Opisthonem.a og- 

 linum) and mullet (Mugil sp.) on alternating 

 baskets. All sets were rriade at sunset and 

 retrieved at daylight. 



One longline gear was set in the axis of 

 the Gulf Stream off Stuart, Florida, 220 fath- 



oms; two sets on Blake Plateau (Antilles 

 Current) in 450 and 540 fathoms; one beyond 

 the 1,000-fathom isobath east of Cape Kennedy, 

 2,600 fathoms, and one in the Gulf Stream off 

 St. Augustine, Florida, 345 fathoms. 



Seven swordfish totaling 664 pounds were 

 caught in depths of 5 to 30 fathoms in the 

 Gulf Stream (Stuart and St. Augustine) and 

 Blake plateau. Eleven tuna (4 species) 

 weighing 342 pounds were caught on longline. 

 No large concentrations of food or industrial 

 fish were located. The 2 best single catches 

 of fish were 1,304 pounds (spots, croakers, 

 and whiting) and 843 pounds (spots, croakers, 

 whiting, and silver trout) in the bight of Cape 

 Kennedy. Small quantities of scattered brown, 

 pink, and white shrimp were caught. 



For more information, contact Base Di- 

 rector, BCF Exploratory Fishing and Gear 

 Research Base HQ, Pascagoula, Miss. 39567. 



California's Nautilus Tags Crabs 



The State of California's M/V Nautilus 

 conducted a crab -tagging operation in the 

 coastal waters off San Francisco and Bodega 

 Bay from August 6-30. (Cruise Report 

 66-N-9 Crab.) 



Purposes of the mission were: to tag a 

 maximum of 2,500 female and sublegal male 

 crabs for survival, growth, and migration 

 studies; to determine mating activity of male 

 crabs and fertility of female crabs and abun- 

 dance of crabs in tagging areas. 



Gear and Operations: Thirty commercial- 

 size crab traps without escape ports and 

 power block for pulling crab traps were used. 

 Thirty traps were set at each of the following 

 locations: (1) Bodega Bay (2) Drakes Bay 

 (3) Rocky Point (4) San Francisco Lightship 

 and (5) Point San Pedro. Fished with squid 

 as bait in depths of 7-17 fathoms. The traps 

 were pulled daily except for two 48 -hour soak- 

 ings. Two days of fishing were required at 

 all locations except Drakes Bay, where one 

 day obtained crabs needed for tagging. They 

 were tagged with vinyl-plastic spaghetti tags 

 and released the same day they were caught. 

 Shoulder width and condition of each crab was 

 recorded. 



