2.6 percent died at the baiting ground, whereas 

 7.1 percent were released. Areas 64-66 had 

 good catches. 



The vessels expended very little effort bait- 

 ing at other areas such as Ala Wai and Haleiwa 

 on Oahu and at grounds on neighboring islands. 

 Nine days of baiting yielded 304 buckets in 21 

 sets or 14.5 buckets per set. 



Collectively, the vessels had day catches 

 totaling 3,943 buckets and averaging 36.5 buck- 

 ets per day, enough to fill the baitwells on an 

 average-sized vessel. In 319 sets or an aver- 

 age of 3.0 sets per day, the vessels averaged 

 12.4 buckets of bait per set. 



Not all the bait caught reached the fishing 

 grounds. The skipjack tuna catch reports of 

 the Hawaii Division of Fish and Game show that 

 about 25 percent of the bait die before use. We 

 estimated that about 3 percent of the losses 

 occurred on the baiting grounds during trans- 

 port and transfer. The bulk of the losses, 

 however, occurred between the time that the 

 bait was safely aboard and arrival at the fishing 

 grounds, but we are unable to give a reliable 



estimate of this loss because of insufficient 

 data. 



Night Baiting 



In night baiting, there is no active scouting 

 for schools of baitfish. Rather, a submerged 

 light attracts the baitfish to the anchored or 

 moored vessel. Usually just before daybreak, 

 the fishermen set the net around the school and 

 transfer the bait into the baitwells. So that 

 they may have enough sleep, the fishermen 

 rarely set the net more than once during the 

 night. Night baiting frequently started at 1901- 

 0100 and in 90 percent of the operations ended 

 at 0501-0600; it usually lasted about 8 hours. 



In recent years, the fishermen have found the 

 baiting grounds at Keehi Lagoon (and Honolulu 

 Harbor) very productive and attributed the good 

 catches to increased nehu production in recent- 

 ly dredged areas. Actually, Keehi Lagoon ac- 

 counted for only 16 percent of all day-baiting 

 effort, but had 84 percent of all night-baiting 

 effort, which totaled 129 sets. The reason is 

 that until 1968, the U.S. Navy prohibited fishing 



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