22 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
It appears that the changes in the values of the coefficients follow somewhat the 
same trend from year to year. However, a more careful inspection shows that such a 
conclusion is hardly justified. In the set of boats delivering to plants north of Point 
Ellis (Groups II and III, fig. 10) while the July and August values are quite similar, 
two of the June values are high and the third is low, so that no reliance can be placed 
on them. The values for September are based on too few items to be worthy of 
serious consideration. For those boats delivering to plants south of Point Ellis, 
it appears that there may be a significant correlation between size and catch during 
September, but the inconsistency of the August values makes it seem doubtful that 
any definite conclusions can be reached without more data. 
For the set of boats north of Point Ellis there appears to be no correlation. For 
the set of boats south of Point Ellis there appears to be a larger coefficient of correla- 
tion with the larger catches. Table 2 shows 
that these larger catches were all made in 
August and September. This being the 
case it may be concluded that the reason 
the larger boats are more efficient at this 
time is principally because of their supe- 
rior seaworthiness, for during the last part 
of August and in September the boats of 
this southern set fish chiefly around Cape 
Ommaney, where the weather is very ad- 
verse at this season of the year. If this 
correlation were due to the quantities of fish 
taken, then a similar correlation should ap- 
pear in the set north of Point Ellis; but in 
the northern set of boats such a correlation 
does not appear, and in this set the larger 
quantities are not taken under as adverse 
conditions. 
Figure 5. — Showing the net tonnage of every boat in the A reason for the lack of a significant 
fleet for which the tonnage is known, each year from 1922 correlation between size of boat and monthly 
catch is suggested by Table 3 in which the 
daily catches are shown, during 1929, for the 4 smallest and the 4 largest vessels of 
the fleet. The 4 smallest vessels comprise 3 of 26 net tons and 1 of 27 net tons. The 
4 largest vessels include 2 of 40, 1 of 42, and 1 of 47 net tons. Two features are of 
importance — one is the larger catches taken by the larger vessels, the other is the 
greater number of catches taken by the smaller vessels. Here is probably the 
answer to lack of correlation between size and total catch, the smaller vessels mak- 
ing up in number of catches for what the larger vessels gain by an occasional large 
catch. 
It may be concluded from this study of the fleet that the differences in the 
efficiency of boats of different sizes are dependent upon too many factors to be 
analyzed easily, but upon the whole these differences are not sufficiently marked in 
the period from 1927 to 1929 to make it necessary to allow for them in an analysis of 
the catch per unit of fishing effort, and even though one so desired not enough is 
known at present to justify making such an allowance. This statement probably 
does not apply to the very small boats used extensively in the earlier years, especially 
before 1925, which certainly did not approach_the recent boats in efficiency/ 
