CHAPTER XI 



THE LITTLE TUNAS 



' Vext with the puny foe, the tunnies leap, 

 Flounce in the stream, and toss the mantling deep ; 

 Bide over the foamy seas, with torture rave, 

 Bound into the air and dash the smoking wave.' 



Oppian. 



THE leaping tuna, that attains a weight of thirteen hundred 

 pounds and travels the seas of the world, is in a class by 

 itself ; but it has numerous relatives, which if not so large, range 

 up to one hundred pounds and give the angler the most exciting 

 of sports. It has been found that the government island of San 

 Clemente, and the island of Santa Catalina, off Los Angeles 

 county, California, some twenty miles, are the spawning grounds 

 of aU these tunas, and there is a movement on foot to have them 

 set aside as fish refuges, so that the nets of the professional fisher- 

 men shall not interfere with the spawning, and the valuable 

 supply of food fish be secured for aU time. In July, August and 

 September the waters within the three-mile limit are filled with 

 spawn, the eggs of countless fishes, preyed upon by sea birds of 

 many kinds, showing that prolific Nature has provided for the 

 great drain upon her resources.* 



Among the lesser tunas is the one known as the yellow-fin 

 tuna (Thunnus maculata), for many years accredited to Japan 

 and Hawaii ; but it has been coming to Santa OataHna in greater 

 or less numbers for centuries. This fish has all the habits of the 

 leaping tuna, except that it plays more on the surface, does not 

 sidk so much. In weight it ranges to about sixty or seventy 

 pounds, the record being sixty pounds, by Arthur J. Eddy. 



1 See footnote p. 110. 



Ill 



