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UNITED  STATES  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE   INTERIOR 
U.S.   FISH   AND  WILDLIFE   SERVICE 
BUREAU   OF   COMMERCIAL   FISHERIES 


Circular   321 
September    1969 


Progress  in  1967-68  at  the  Bureau  of  Commercial  Fislieries  Biological  Laboratory,  Honolulu 


COVER  —  Closeup  view  ot  decking  on  Hawaiian  fishing  vessel, 
taken    by    Tamotsu    Nakato. 


UNITED  STATES   DEPARTMENT  OF  THE   INTERIOR 
U.S.   FISH   AND  WILDLIFE   SERVICE 
BUREAU   OF   COMMERCIAL   FISHERIES 


Progress  in  1967-68  at  the  Bureau  of  Commercial  Fisheries 
Biological  Lahoratory,  Honolulu 


Thomas   A.   Manor 

Chief,    Publication   Services 

Bureau  of  Commercial   Fisheries  Biological   Laboratory 

Honolulu,   Hawaii  96812 

Circular  321 
Washington,   D.C. 
September   1969 


ABSTRACT 


This  iH'|)ort  deals  with  research  results  achieved  by  the 
Bureau  of  rommercial  Fisheries  Biological  Laboratory  in 
Honolulu  from  January  1.  1967  to  June  30,  1968.  Described 
are  projects  designed  to  improve  the  efficiency  of  the  Ha- 
waiian fleet  for  skipjack  tuna;  work  in  immunogenetic 
analysis  that  is  clarifying  the  relations  of  the  skipjack 
tuna  subpopulations  of  the  Pacific  Ocean;  investigation  of 
the  shrimp  and  bottom  fish  resources  of  Hawaii ;  advances 
in  oceanographic  research,  including  discovery  of  a  wake  in 
the  lee  of  Johnston  Island,  as  predicted  by  theory;  the 
effects  of  oil  spillage  on  a  Pacific  island ;  and  the  first  scien- 
tific review  of  the  international  CSK  (Cooperative  Study  of 
the  Kuroshio  and  Adjacent  Regions).  Publications  for  the 
period  are  listed. 


rNTRODUCTION 


This  report  deals  with  research  results  achieved  by  the 
BCF    (Bureau  of   Commercial   Fisheries)    Biological  Lab- 
oratory in  Honolulu  from  January  1,  1967  to  June  30,  1968. 
Highlights  of  the  reporting  period  include: 

1.  Attempts  to  improve  the  efficiency  of  the  present 
Hawaiian  pole-and-line  fleet  for  skipjack  tuna  (Katsuwonus 
pelamis).  Skipjack  tuna  are  the  basis  of  by  far  the  largest 
fishery  in  Hawaii,  but  the  fleet  takes  only  a  minuscule  part 
of  the  potential  annual  yield  of  central  Pacific  skipjack 
tuna,  which  has  been  estimated  as  being  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  tons. 

2.  Experiments  aimed  at  establishing  an  independent 
bait-fishing  industry.  At  present  the  vessels  of  the  fleet 
seine  for  their  own  bait,  the  preferred  species  being  the 
nehu,  a  kind  of  anchovy.  Much  time  is  spent  catching  bait, 
when  it  could  be  better  spent  catching  tunas. 

3.  The  search  for  an  alternate  or  supplemental  bait. 
The  threadfin  shad,  a  fish  introduced  into  Hawaii  as  forage 
for  bass,  apparently  is  as  effective  as  the  nehu  in  attracting 
skipjack  tuna. 

4.  Analytical  studies  of  day-to-day  operations  of  the 
Hawaiian  fleet.  These  investigations  have  produced  data 
of  kinds  and  quantities  never  available  before. 

5.  Use  of  continuous-transmission,  frequency-modu- 
lated sonar  to  study  the  movements  of  tunas  underwater. 
The  sonar  is  being  used  both  in  the  active  mode,  in  which 
a  signal  from  the  ship  is  reflected  by  the  body  of  the  fish. 


and  the  passive,  in  which  a  "sonic  tag"  fed  to  a  fish  sends 
out  signals  that  are  detected  by  the  sonar.  By  both  means, 
fishes  underwater  can  be  tracked  for  periods  of  hours. 

6.  Discovery  that  the  skipjack  tuna  caught  in  the  west- 
ern Pacific  Ocean  are  genetically  distinct  from  those  caught 
in  the  eastern  and  central  Pacific.  The  dividing  line  be- 
tween the  groups  apparently  lies  far  west  of  Hawaii. 

7.  Delineation  of  commercial  shrimp  resources  off  the 
Hawaiian  Islands.  Several  beds  of  shrimp  have  been  found 
that  might  supply  a  local  specialty  market,  even  though  a 
large  commercial  fishery  appears  out  of  the  question. 

8.  Continuing  studies  of  the  longline  tuna  catches  of 
the  South  Pacific,  as  they  are  reflected  in  the  landings  at 
American  Samoa.  The  fishery  now  extends  almost  the 
breadth  of  the  South  Pacific  Ocean. 

9.  Confirmation  of  the  theory  that  the  principal 
changes  in  the  temperature  of  the  waters  around  Hawaii 
during  the  first  7  months  of  the  year  are  due  not  to  the 
changing  seasons,  but  to  the  advection  of  warm  water  into 
the  area  from  the  south  and  southeast.  This  warm  water, 
less  saline  than  that  which  prevails  during  the  winter, 
appears  to  be  associated  with  the  large  summer  catches  of 
skipjack  tuna. 

10.  Depiction  of  a  pronounced  wake  effect  in  the  lee  of 
tiny  Johnston  Island.  Predicted  by  theory,  the  wake  was 
clearly  defined  in  a  cruise  made  early  in  1968.  A  wake  was 
also  found  off  the  island  of  Hawaii. 


11.  Investigation  of  the  effects  of  oil  spillage  at  Wake 
Island.  Such  accidents  have  aroused  the  concern  of  author- 
ities throughout  the  world  since  the  Torrey  Canyon  disaster 
in  the  Engli.sh  Channel.  At  Wake,  deleterious  effects  were 
relatively  slight,  owing  to  a  combination  of  circumstances. 


12.  Convocation  in  Honolulu  of  the  first  scientific  re- 
view of  the  results  of  the  CSK  (Cooperative  Study  of  the 
Kuroshio  and  Adjacent  Regions),  an  international  marine 
research  project  in  which  11  nations  have  joined. 

A  list  of  publications  during  the  period  concludes  the 
report. 


THE  HAWAII  AREA 


The  Hawaii  Area  of  the  Bureau  of  Commercial  Fisheries 
covers  a  wide  reach  of  the  tropical  and  subtropical  Pacific 
Ocean  (fig.  1).  Between  Palau  in  the  Trust  Territory  of 
the  Pacific  Islands,  where  the  Hawaii  Area  maintains  a 
field  station,  and  the  Laboratory  in  Honolulu  lie  more  than 
4,000  miles  of  ocean,  a  distance  about  as  great  as  that 
between  New  York  and  Rome,  Italy.  The  second  field  .sta- 
tion, at  Pago  Pago,  American  Samoa,  south  of  the  Equator, 
is  5  hours  and  10  minutes  by  jet  flight  from  Hawaii.  From 
Honolulu  northwest  to  Weather  Station  Victor,  1  of  10 
Pacific  locations  from  which  the  Laboratory  maintains 
continuing  data  collections,  is  more  than  2,000  nautical 
miles. 

FIGURE  I.  Formerly  known  os  POFI  (Pocific  Oceonic  Fishery  Investi- 
gotions),  the  Howoii  Area  of  the  Bureou  of  Commercial  Fisheries  has 
conducted  research  on  13  million  squore  miles  of  the  Pacific  Ocean 
since  1949.  From  its  headquarters  in  Honolulu,  it  studies  tuna  fisheries 
there  and  through  field  stations  in  Pago  Pogo,  Americon  Samoa,  ond 
Polou,  Trust  Territory  of  the  Pacific  Islands.  It  administers  research 
projects  under  Federal  Aid  to  Commercial  Fisheries  Research  and  De- 
velopment Act  (P.  L.  88-3091  in  American  Samoa,  Guam,  and  Hawaii. 
It  maintains  continuing  data  collections  from  Johnston  Island,  Christ- 
mas Island,  Vaitogi,  Tutuilo,  American  Samoa,  Guom,  Weather  Stotion 
Victor,  Wake  Island,  Midway  Island,  French  Frigate  Shoal,  Weather 
Station  Norember,  and  Koko  Head  (Oahul.  Labeled  circles  show 
distances  from  Honolulu  in  nautical  mites. 


80*    W       70* 


130*     E        140* 


wr 


ec  w.     70* 


FIGURE  2.  Between  Jonuary  1950  and  December  1966,  reseorch  »ei- 
sels  of  the  Hawaii  Areo  sailed  about  900,000  nautical  miles  an  ocean- 
ography ond  fishery  cruises.  Currently,  the  Hawaii  Area  operates 
two   ships,   the    120  foot   CHARLES    H.   GILBERT   and   the    ISSfoot 


TOWNSEND  CROMWELL.  Each  vessel  is  at  seo  more  than  230  days 
of  the  year.  The  other  vessels  that  hove  been  operated  by  the  Ha- 
waii Area  are  the  HENRY  O'MALLEY,  JOHN  R.  MANNING,  ond 
HUGH  M.  SMITH. 


The  area  under  investigation  contains  about  13  million 
square  miles — a  region  more  than  four  times  the  size  of 
that  occupied  by  the  contiguous  United  States.  Much  of  it 
has  been  investigated  repeatedly  during  research  cruises. 
Between  1950  and  1966,  vessels  of  the  Hawaii  Area  sailed 
about  900,000  nautical  miles  (fig.  2). 

A  tree-shaded,  pink  stucco  building  adjacent  to  the  Ma- 
noa  Campus  of  the  University  of  Hawaii  is  headquarters 
for  the  Hawaii  Area  and  site  of  the  Biological  Laboratory, 
Honolulu  (fig.  3).  There  the  Laboratory's  Chief  of  Scien- 
tific Services,  Mary  Lynne  Godfrey,  supervises  a  data- 
gathering  network  that  covers  almost  the  entire  tropical 
and  subtropical  Pacific  Ocean.  Under  her  direction  is  a 
staff  of  young,  college-trained  technicians  (fig.  4).  Their 
job  is  to  collect,  compile,  and  process  the  basic  data  the 
Laboratory  uses  in  its  studies  of  the  fisheries  and  ocean- 
ography of  the  Pacific. 

Most  of  the  technicians  work  at  the  Laboratoi'y  unless 
they  are  at  sea  on  the  two  research  vessels,  Charlcfi  H.  Gil- 
bert and  Townsend  Cromwell.  They  take  turns  at  manning 
the  two  field  stations  in  Palau  and  American  Samoa. 

Daily  a  technician  from  BCF  joins  the  fish  handlers  and 
buyers  at  Honolulu's  two  fish  auctions  and  makes  measure- 
ments and  observations  on  the  catches  of  boats  from  the 
Oahu-based  22-vessel  longline  fleet  (fig.  5).  The  fishery 
technician  rapidly  records  weights,  lengths,  and  sex  of  the 
tunas  and  billfishes.  He  may  also  draw  samples  of  tuna 
blood  or  collect  eye  lenses  or  stomach  contents. 


FIGURE  3.  The  principal  building  of  the  Hawaii  Area,  located  odjo- 
cent  to  the  campus  of  the  University  of  hlowaii  in  Honolulu,  houses 
the  Area  headquarters  ond  the  research  staff  of  the  Biological  Labo- 
rotory.  The  principol  building  contains  8  laboratory  work  oreas,  35 
offices,  a  5,000-volume  library,  and  a  seminar  room.  Behind  it  is  a 
one-story  annex  that  contoins  three  laboratory  work  oreos^  five  of- 
fices, 0  duplicating  services  oreo,  a  warehouse,  and  o  garage. 


At  .5:00  in  the  afternoon  a  technician  waits  at  the  tuna 
cannery  at  Kewalo  Basin  in  Honolulu  as  the  skipjack  tuna 
caught  by  the  pole-and-line  fleet  are  unloaded  and  trundled 
in  for  processing  (fig.  6).  He  too  measures  and  weighs 
fish  and  notes  their  sex,  and  collects  blood  samjiles. 

Early  or  late,  whenever  and  wherever  in  the  Hawaii  Area 
pelagic  fish  are  unloaded  in  any  quantity,  the  BCF  has 
endeavored  to  be  on  hand,  collecting  data  to  further  its 
studies.  Work  .starts  at  6:00  a.m.  for  the  man  stationed 
in  American  Samoa,  where  -Japanese,  Korean  and  Chine.se 


FIGURE  4,  Technicians  ond  other  specialists  constitute  the  staff  of 
Scientific  Services.  Here  Area  Director  John  C.  Morr  congratulates 
Morion  Y.  Y.  Yong,  a  mathematician  in  Scientific  Services,  who  is 
receiving   on   oword   for  outstanding   work. 


fishinp  boats  unload  their  catches  at  two  busy  U.S. -owned 
canneries  in  Pago  Pago. 

In  April  1965,  in  cooperation  with  the  Trust  Territory 
of  the  Pacific  Islands  and  the  newly  established  U.S. -owned 
fish  freezing  plant  in  Koror,  Palau  Islands,  the  Laboratory 
started  similar  sampling  of  fish  taken  in  that  area  of  the 
Western  Caroline  Islands. 

The  study  of  Pacific  tuna  is  intimately  linked  to  knowl- 
edge of  the  environment  in  which  the  fish  live.  With  im- 
pressive cooperation  over  the  years,  agencies  with  stations 
all  over  the  Pacific  have  been  assisting  in  the  collection 
of  surface  water  temperatures  and  salinity  samples  for 
BCF.  The  collections  continue  to  lead  toward  a  better  un- 
derstanding of  the  movements  of  ocean  currents  and  water 
masses  and  ultimately  of  the  fish  which  live  in  them. 

The  cooperative  program  began  in  late  1953.  Working 
with  the  District  Commissioner  of  the  Line  Islands  District, 
Gilbert  and  Ellice  Islands  Colony,  scientists  from  the  BCF 
arranged  for  Gilbertese  employees  on  Christmas  Island  to 
gather  the  desired  temperatures  and  water  samples.  This 
important  set  of  records  from  the  equatorial  region  has 
continued  with  few  breaks  to  the  present  time. 

In  November  1955,  employees  of  the  Laboratory  began  a 
twice-weekly  collection  of  water  samples  at  Koko  Head  on 
Oahu,  for  chemical  analysis.  As  is  true  of  all  the  sampling 
sites,  Koko  Head  water  is  characterized  by  open-ocean  con- 
ditions. 

In  early  1957,  weekly  sampling  was  begun  northwest  of 
Hawaii,  on  Wake  Island,  French  Frigate  Shoal,  and  Midway 
Island. Then  Johnston  Island,  to  the  southwest,  was  followed 


FIGURE  5.  The  auction  market  in  Honolulu  disposes  of  fresh  fish. 
Most  in  demand  are  lunai  and  billfishes  from  the  longline  fishery, 
which  ore  here  shown  being  examined  by  buyers.  Laboratory  techni- 
cians ottend  the  auction  to  collect  biological  data  on  a  random 
sample  of  the  fish. 


by  Manele  Point  on  Lanai  and  American  Samoa  in  1961, 
and  Guam  in  1962.  From  each  island  the  Bureau  is  obtain- 
ing these  useful  sets  of  data  Ijy  virtue  of  the  helpful  and 
longstanding  cooperation  of  employees  of  the  Weather 
Bureau,  the  Coast  Guard,  the  Navy,  the  Departments  of 
Agriculture  of  both  Guam  and  the  Government  of  American 
Samoa,  and  the  Hawaii  Division  of  Fish  and  Game. 

In  addition  to  data  from  sampling  sites  on  land,  BCF 
uses  material  from  two  ocean  weather  stations.  The  Weath- 
er Bureau  and  the  Coast  Guard  have  made  possible  the 
collection  of  daily  surface  water  temperatures  and  weekly 
water  samples  from  Weather  Stations  Victor  (lat.  34'00'N., 
long.  164''00'  E.)  and  November  (lat.  30°00'  N.,  long. 
140-00'  W.). 

Under  Mary  Lynne  Godfrey's  supervision,  the  millions 
of  items  of  data  collected  from  this  wide  area  are  punched 
on  cards  for  machine  analysis. 

These  data  are  used  by  the  Laboratory's  scientists  to 
study  the  resource  potentials  of  the  tropical  and  subtropical 
Pacific  Ocean.    The  major  resources  appear  to  be: 

(1)  Skipjack  tuna. 

(2)  Shrimp   and   bottom   fish. 

(3)  Large  tunas  (bigeye,  yellowfin,  and  albacore)  and 

billfishes  taken  by  longline. 
This  report  deals  with  results  of  research  on  these  re- 
sources and  their  environment. 


FIGURE  6  The  principol  fishery  in  Howoii  is  thot  for  skipjack  tuno. 
These  fish  ore  caught  by  pole  end  line.  Most  arc  unloaded  at  Kewalo 
Basin  in  Honolulu  for  sale  to  the  cannery.  Laboratory  technicians 
meet  the  fishing  sampans  as  they  come  in  and  note  the  weight, 
length,  ond  sex  of  samples  of  the  catch. 


THE  SKIPJACK  TUNA  RESOURCE 


Published  studies  by  the  Hawaii  Area  staff  have  shown 
that  the  skipjack  tuna  resource  of  the  central  Pacific  Ocean 
is  capable  of  sustaining  huge  harvests  over  and  above  pres- 
ent catches.  The  potential  is  of  the  order  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  tons.  A  unit  of  100,000  tons  of  skipjack  tuna 
has  a  value  of  $25  million  to  the  fishermen.  In  1967,  the 
exvessel  value  of  the  U.S.  shrimp  catch  was  a  record  $103 
million.  Two  100,000-ton  units  of  skipjack  tuna  would  thus 
equal  half  the  present  value  of  that  American  shrimp  catch. 
Added  to  the  1967  U.S.  tuna  catch,  these  units  would  bring 
the  tuna  total  to  $94.5  million.  These  figures  are  cited 
to  suggest  the  magnitude  of  the  payoff  that  would  result 
from  expanded  skipjack  tuna  production  in  the  central 
Pacific. 

The  Behavior  of  Tunas 

Man  has  hunted  several  species  of  the  swift  and  valuable 
tunas  for  thousands  of  years,  but  he  has  accumulated 
remarkably  little  reliable  knowledge  of  the  behavior  of 
these  fish  at  sea.  Only  within  recent  decades  has  there  been 
a  concerted  effort  to  describe  precisely  how  tunas  behave 
in  the  open  ocean. 

In  1967  biologist  Eugene  L.  Nakamura  summarized  the 
literature  on  field  observations  of  the  tunas  for  an  inter- 
national conference  of  fishery  experts  in  Bergen,  Norway. 
Nakamura  found  that  the  conditions  of  fishing  have  set 
sharp  limits  on  man's  knowledge  of  the  tunas.  The  most 
widely  used  methods  of  catching  the  fish  require  that  the 
tunas  be  hungry;  consequently  a  substantial  part  of  the 
body  of  observations  concerns  feeding  behavior. 

Sometimes  tunas  appear  to  seek  out  a  single  species  of 
small  fish  as  their  prey;  at  other  times  they  do  not.  Near 


Hawaii,  for  example,  tunas  sometimes  appear  to  prefer  the 
fishes  that  live  at  a  depth  of  1,000  feet  or  more,  rather 
than  the  surface-living  fishes  or  baitfishes  thrown  in  the 
water. 

A  hungry  fish  may  bite  poorly  or  well.  One  scientist 
has  found  that  between  the  extremes  of  starvation  and 
satiation,  the  less  food  the  fish  have  in  their  stomachs,  the 
less  likely  they  are  to  bite  well.  But  others  have  found 
that  fish  with  empty  stomachs  bite  very  well. 

Skipjack  tuna,  the  most  plentifully  caught  of  the  species 
in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  display  vertical  bars  on  their  sides 
during  feeding  (fig.  7).  Scientists  have  said  that  the  catch 
will  be  good  when  the  fish  exhibit  these  bars. 

Tunas  travel  in  schools.  The  size  of  these  schools  can 
vary  tremendously,  from  a  few  fish  to  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands. In  1958,  near  San  Benito  Island,  off  the  west  coast 
of  Baja  California,  purse  seiners  took  4.000  tons  of  bluefin 
tuna  from  a  single  school.  This  is  about  80  per  cent  as 
much  fish  as  is  caught  by  the  entire  Hawaiian  skipjack 
tuna  fleet  in  a  whole  year. 

Almost  all  species  of  tunas  have  been  reported  in  mixed 
schools  of  two  or  more  species,  Nakamura  says.  But  ac- 
cording to  research  conducted  by  Heeny  S.  H.  Yuen  at  the 
Laboratory   in   Honolulu,   these   "mi.xed"   schools  probably 


FIGURE  7.  Skipjack  tuno  disploy  pronounced  »ertical  bars  on  their 
flanks  when  they  ore  feeding.  These  bors  interrupt  the  normally 
dork  longitudinal  stripes  that  charocteriie  the  skipjack  tuna.  These 
fish  were  photogrophed  from  a  viewing  port  of  the  Laboratory  rc- 
seorch  vessel  CHARLES  H.  GILBERT.  Species  reloted  to  the  skipjack 
tuna  have  also  displayed  such  bors  during  a  courting  sequence 


are  distinct  schools  of  different  species  of  tunas  drawn  to- 
gether by  a  common  stimulus,  such  as  food. 

In  the  eastern  Pacific  Ocean,  site  of  the  largest  U.S.  tuna 
fishery,  skipjack  tuna  and  yellowfin  tuna  are  often  caught 
together  in  purse  seines.  Scientists  there  have  found  that 
the  excitable  skipjack  tuna  calmed  down  when  they  were 
placed  in  a  baitwell  with  the  less  erratic  yellowfin  tuna. 

Schools  of  tunas  usually  consist  of  fish  of  the  same 
size.  The  reason  probably  is  that  swimming  speed  varies 
with  size  and  therefore  that  fish  tend  to  school  with 
other  fish  of  the  same  size,  which  swim  at  the  same  rate. 
Thus  even  if  two  or  more  species  are  present,  they  will 
be  approximately  the  same  size. 

A  Japanese  scientist  has  ob.served  that  schools  of  skip- 
jack tuna  that  bite  well  maintain  an  orderly  formation, 
"like  marching  troops" ;  those  that  bite  poorly  are  "dis- 
orderly." 

Some  tunas  school  at  night.  Schooling  is  thought  to  be 
a  function  of  sight;  Nakamura  thinks  that  at  night  the  fish 
can  see  well  enough  to  school  by  the  light  of  the  moon  or 
the  light  shed  by  luminescent  organisms.  Some  fishermen 
locate  schools  by  watching  for  the  luminescence  of  plank- 
tonic  organisms  disturbed  by  the  fish. 

In  the  eastern  Pacific,  purse  seining  for  tuna  has  been 
most  successful  when  a  shallow  upper  mixed  layer  of  the 
sea  has  been  underlain  by  a  pronounced  thermocline.  That 
is,  the  temperature  drops  off  sharply  within  a  few  dozen 
feet.  This  sharp  gradient  is  widely  believed  to  deter  tuna 
from  sounding  (diving)  and  escaping  the  nets.  It  may  not, 
however,  be  temperature  alone  that  causes  the  fish  to  avoid 
the  thermocline.  The  water  there  is  often  turbid  and  some- 
times the  layer  just  below  the  thermocline  has  perilously 
little  oxygen. 

Like  many  other  fishes,  tunas  appear  to  seek  out  floating 
objects.  Some  scientists  think  they  use  them  as  "land- 
marks" in  a  largely  featureless  sea.    Recently,  other  scien- 


tists have  said  that  the  chief  function  of  the  floating  objects 
appears  to  be  to  offer  shelter.  In  any  event,  tunas  are  often 
found  near  logs,  driftwood,  floating  vessels,  even  dead 
whales.  Japanese  scientists  say  that  schools  may  wander 
as  far  as  7  or  8  miles  from  such  an  object  and  then  return. 
If  this  pelagic  homing  does  occur,  Nakamura  says,  it  im- 
plies that  the  tunas  have  some  sort  of  navigational  system. 

The  animal  association  of  the  tunas  that  is  most  prof- 
itable to  man  is  that  with  birds,  although  in  some  fisheries 
the  association  with  porpoises  is  more  important.  In  the 
central  Pacific,  and  in  some  other  areas,  fishermen  depend 
almost  wholly  on  sighting  bird  flocks  to  locate  tuna,  Na- 
kamura says.  "They  even  rely  on  the  behavior  of  the 
birds  to  determine  certain  characteristics  of  the  schools  .  . . 
The  number  and  spread  of  the  birds  is  an  indication  of 
school  size.  If  the  birds  dive  and  circle  fast  and  erratically, 
the  fish  are  small.  If  the  birds  are  seen  diving  into  the 
water,  the  tunas  have  driven  their  prey  to  the  surface  and 
are  feeding  actively.  If  the  birds  scatter  or  sit  on  the  sea 
surface,  the  fish  have  sounded." 

The  tunas  are  among  the  swiftest  of  the  fish.  Their 
measured  speeds  have  been  as  great  as  25  m.  a  second 
(56  miles  per  hour). 

Nakamura,  Chief  of  the  Behavior  and  Physiolog>'  Pro- 
gram at  the  Laboratory  in  Honolulu,  is  interested  in  the 
behavior  of  tunas  both  at  sea  and  in  the  laboratory.  His 
group  is  concentrating  on  two  aspects  of  the  behavior  of 
the  fish :  their  reaction  to  different  species  of  live  bait 
and  their  subsurface  distribution  in  the  sea. 

The  Hawaiian  Live-Bait  Fishery 

What  the  Hawaiians  call  "nehu"  (Stolephorits  purpuretis) 
is  a  silver  sliver  of  a  fish  that  is  one  of  the  anchovies, 
much  like  the  kind  that  come  salted  and  packed  in  cans 
(fig.  8).  The  nehu  is  sporadically  plentiful  in  Hawaii's 
dozen  or  so  shallow  bays,  but  probably   is  not  abundant 


10 


FIGURE  8.  A  species  of  anchory  unique  to  Howoii,  the  nehu  is  the 
preferred  bait  of  the  poleand-line  fishery  for  the  skipjock  tuno. 
The  silvery  nehu  is  found  in  shallow  bays  ond  horbors  of  oil  the 
Howoiion  Islands.  At  present  the  fleet  spends  olmost  as  much  time 
catching  nehu  05  it  does  the  roluoble  tuno. 


FIGURE  9.  Nehu  not  needed  after  completion  of  experiments  in 
tronsporting  and  holding  boit  were  mode  available  to  the  Howoiion 
fleet.  Here  o  fisherman  from  one  of  the  sompons  places  in  a  bucket 
nehu  supplied  by  the  Laboratory.  The  bait  survived  sotisfoctorily  in 
the  baitwells  of  the  fishing  vessels. 


11 


enough  to  support  a  fishery  more  than  a  few  times  the 
size  of  the  present  one;  furthermore,  the  supply  is  unde- 
pendable;  and,  even  worse,  the  nehu  is  a  remarkably 
fragile  fish,  prone  to  die  in  catastrophic  numbers  on  hand- 
ling. 

The  research  program  at  Honolulu  in  1967-68  iiichuled 
several  studies  of  the  nehu,  in  which  two  approaches  were 
used :  first,  to  attempt  to  improve  the  present  primitive 
method  of  collecting,  which  often  requires  the  ships  to  quit 
fishing  for  tunas  and  fish  for  baitfish,  most  of  which  are 
taken  during  the  daylight ;  and  second,  to  search  for  other 
small  fishes  that  could  supplement  or  replace  the  nehu.  It 
has  been  calculated  that  if  the  fleet  did  not  have  to  fish 
for  nehu,  but  could  purchase  bait,  it  would  have  more 
time  for  its  chief  purpose — catching  tunas.  The  Labora- 
tory has  experimented  with  fixed  traps  and  lift  nets  to 
take  nehu,  the  object  being  to  develop  methods  that  require 
less  manpower  than  do  pre.sent  techniques.  The  results 
were  only  slightly  encouraging;  they  emphasized  what  was 
already  painfully  known  to  the  fishermen — that  the  nehu 
is  a  remarkably  undependable  fish.  High  catches  were 
sometimes  succeeded  immediately  by  a  run  of  dry  hauls. 
This  variablility  was  all  the  more  pronounced  because  only 
two  to  five  traps  and  nets  were  being  used  simultaneously. 
After  experiments  on  catching  and  holding  nehu.  surplus 
fish   were  given   the  commercial  fleet    (fig.   0). 

The  experiments  on  the  catching  and  handling  of  l)ait- 
fish  were  carried  out  under  the  direction  of  Richard  S. 
Shomura  in  Kaneohe  Bay,  on  the  island  of  Oahu.  Wiu-k 
there  ended   in    1968;  similar  investigations  may  later  hi' 


FIGURE  10,  The  threadfin  shad,  a  small  fish  common  in  the  Missis- 
sippi Bosin,  was  introduced  to  Hawaii  in  the  1950'5  os  o  foroge  fish 
for  largemouth  and  smollmouth  boss.  Tests  by  the  Laboratory  have 
conclusively  shown  it  mokes  a  sotisfoctory  substitute  for  the  nehu 
in   catching   skipjack  tuna. 


12 


made  in  Pearl  Harbor,  through  the  cooperation  of  the  U.S. 
Navy  and  the  State  of  Hawaii. 

Success  was  achieved  in  the  search  for  other  small  fishes 
that  could  supplement  or  replace  the  nehu.  A  small  clupeid, 
the  threadfin  shad  (Doivnoma  petoioisc) ,  adaptable  to  life 
in  fresh  or  salt  water,  was  introduced  into  Hawaii  in  the 
1950's  and  has  established  itself  in  fresh  water  reservoirs 
(figs.  10  and  11). 

In  the  summer  of  1968,  under  the  direction  of  biologist 
Robert  T.  B.  Iversen,  the  Charles  H.  Gilbert  tested  at  sea 
the  relative  effectiveness  of  nehu  and  threadfin  shad  as 
bait  for  skipjack  tuna.  This  carefully  designed  experiment 
showed  conclusively  that  there  is  no  important  difference 
between  catches  made  with  threadfin  shad  and  nehu — one 
takes  just  as  many  skipjack  tuna  as  the  other.  This  result 
is  important,  for  two  reasons:  the  first  deals  with  tradition 
and  prejudice — earlier  attempts  to  locate  an  alternate  bait 
in  Hawaii  concentrated  on  the  cichlid,  tilapia.  The  fisher- 
men soon  concluded  that  the  tilapia  simply  was  not  a  good 
bait  for  skipjack  tuna.  The  result  has  been  that  only 
exhaustive  tests,  such  as  have  been  made,  can  now  convince 
them  that  any  other  bait  will  serve  to  catch  fish  from 
the  types  of  schools  found  in  the  central  Pacific.  The 
second  reason  the  result  is  important  is  that  the  threadfin 
shad,  although  delicate,  is  not  as  fragile  as  the  nehu;  it 
survive.s  in  far  higher  numbers  in  the  baitwells  than  does 
nehu.  A  higher  survival  rate  means  that  a  skipjack  tuna 
vessel  need  not  bait  so  often  and  consequently  that  fishing 
trips  can  be  longer.  It  appears  that  even  in  seasons  as 
mediocre  as  the  past  two  have  been,  the  catch  depends 
largely  upon  how  much  time  the  vessels  spend  at  sea  scout- 
ing for  and  catching  fish.  Threadfin  shad  is  still  not  the 
"perfect"  bait,  if  such  exists.  The  Hawaiian  supply,  which 
is  restricted  to  a  few  fresh  water  reservoirs,  may  be  small 
in  relation  to  the  demands  that  might  be  placed  on  it. 
Furthermore  no  one  has  cultured  the  animal.    Therefore 


the  search  for  other  bait  species  will  continue.  The  de- 
sired species  must  meet  several  criteria :  it  must  be  small, 
silvery,  active,  and  capable  of  being  raised  in  large  numbers 
at  a  relatively  low  cost.  Several  possibilities  are  being 
considered. 

Other  Problems  of  the  Fleet 

Although  a  large  resource  is  known  to  exist  nearby, 
today  the  Hawaiian  skipjack  tuna  fleet  is  a  prisoner  of  its 
own  inadequacies.  The  vessels  are  too  small  to  venture  far 
from  the  islands.  Figure  12  .shows  the  most  productive 
areas  fished  by  the  fleet  in  the  period  1948-65.  None  ex- 
tends very  far  from  shore.  The  heaviest  catches  are  made 
within  a  few  miles  of  bustling  metropolitan  Honolulu.  The 
catch  is  highly  seasonal;  about  53  percent  of  it  is  taken  in 
the  summer,  with  a  peak  in  July.  These  conditions  persist  in 
spite  of  the  presence  of  a  cannery  in  Honolulu  that  now  has 
to  import  tuna  to  keep  operating.  Thus  a  ready  market 
exists. 

In  an  effort  to  diagnose  some  of  the  more  pressing  ail- 
ments of  the  industry,  the  Laboratory  in  the  summer  of 
1967  posted  seven  observers  on  vessels  of  the  skii)jack  tuna 
fleet.  These  men  studied  many  aspects  of  the  tuna  boat 
operations.  Their  data  afford  the  first  exhaustive  quanti- 
tative information  on  how  the  boats  and  the  fishermen 
go  about  their  job.  This  valuable  fund  of  information 
was  collected  only  through  the  whole-hearted  cooperation 
of  the  tuna  boat  skippers. 

At  the  height  of  the  .sea.son,  the  vessels  work  a  15.5-hour 
day,  leaving  port  before  daybreak  and  returning  after 
sunset.  They  see  about  six  schools  of  tuna,  successfully 
fish  about  2.6  of  them.  The  average  catch  per  school  is 
just  short  of  a   ton. 

One  valuable  result  of  this  survey  has  been  the  documen- 
tation of  the  very  wide  variability  in  some  aspects  of  the 
operations.    A  boat  with  a  good  catch  record  takes  about 


13 


14 


twice  as  much  fish  per  trip  as  one  with  a  poor  record.  It 
fishes  just  about  as  many  schools,  but  the  yield  per  school  is 
higher. 

The  object  of  this  study  is  to  design  new  and  better 
fishing  strategies  and  tactics  for  the  Hawaiian  fleet.  This 
can  be  done  only  after  careful  analysis  of  the  data.  All  the 
1967  data  have  been  transferred  to  cards  and  run  through 
specially  devised  computer  programs.  The  observational 
program  was  repeated  in  1968.  The  resulting  data  are  now 
being  prepared  for  analysis. 

The  catch  in  1967  was  very  poor;  1968  was  somewhat 
better,  but  not  much  so.  Badly  needed  now  ai'e  data  from 
a  good  season,  so  that  operations  under  varying  conditions 
of  yield  can  be  compared. 

Preliminary  results  already  provide  numerical  data  where 
only  estimates  had  been  available  before,  such  as  the 
amount  of  bait  taken  and  how  it  is  used.  The  seven  vessels 
studied  used  about  25,000  pounds  of  nehu  as  bait  during 
June,  July,  and  August  1967,  according  to  Laboratory 
scientist  Richard  N.  Uchida.  Most  of  the  nehu  were  used 
in  chumming  schools  from  which  fish  were  caught.  About 
four  buckets  (appro.ximately  32  pounds)  were  used,  on  the 
average,  for  each  successfully  fished  school.  The  skippers 
spent  little  i)ait  on  schools  that  could  not  be  fished. 

The  material  shows  that  in  the  summer  of  1967,  which 
was  a  poor  skipjack  tuna  season,  catches  of  fewer  than  200 
fish  each  were  made  in  about  three-fourths  of  the  schools 
successfully  fished. 


FIGURE  11,  Plocid  Wahiowo  Reservoir,  a  few  miles  outside  of  Hono- 
lulu, holds  the  lorgest  supply  of  thrcodfin  shod  in  Hawaii.  The  fish 
were  seined  there  ond  transported  by  truck  to  Honolulu  for  tests 
at  seo. 


The  skipjack  tuna  appear  in  schools  in  which  generally 
all  of  the  fi.sh  are  about  the  same  size.  That  is,  there  are 
schools  of  small  fish  and  schools  of  large  fish,  but  no 
schools  of  small  and  large  fish  mixed.  The  boats  that 
fished  the  schools  of  small  fish  got  smaller  total  catches 
than  those  that  fished  large  fish.  Schools  of  large  fish 
provided  catches  as  large  as  10  tons,  as  against  an  average 
of  1  ton  for  all  the  catches. 

The  study  shows  that  the  Hawaiian  skipjack  tuna  fleet 
attempts  to  fish  about  80  percent  of  the  schools  sighted, 
but  that  only  half  of  the  schools  sighted  yield  successful 
catches.  A  surprisingly  large  percentage  of  the  fish  are 
now  escaping  the  fishermen's  efforts  to  catch  them,  Uchida 
says. 

The  Larger  Resource 

Kiitsinroinis  pclamis.  the  small  tuna  that  is  called  skip- 
jack tuna  ill  English,  aku  in  Hawaiian,  is  caught  around 
the  Hawaiian  Islands  throughout  the  year.  Total  catches 
have  varied  from  6  million  to  16  million  pounds  a  year, 
but  be  the  year  good  or  poor,  the  best  catches  have  always 
been  made  in  the  summer.  It  has  thus  seemed  probable 
to  fishery  scientists  that  in  addition  to  a  local  population 
of  skipjack  tuna,  the  Hawaiian  fishery  is  drawing  upon  a 
migrant  population  that  visits  the  islands  in  greatest  num- 
l)ers  in  summer.  Within  the  past  few  years,  scientists  at 
the  Laboratory  in  Honolulu  have  concluded  that  these 
"season"  fi.sh,  as  the  summer  migrants  are  called,  are 
part  of  a  large  population  resident  in  the  central  Pacific 
Ocean.  They  hypothesize  that  one  of  the  main  spawning 
grounds  of  the  skipjack  tuna  lies  to  the  .south  and  east  of 
Hawaii  in  the  equatorial  central  Pacific.  Fish  spawned 
there  migrate  to  the  west  coast  of  Central  America  and 
Mexico,  where  about  70,000  tons  of  young  fish  are  har- 
vested annually.  Within  a  few  months,  the  hypothesis 
holds,  the  skipjack  tuna  then  turn  westward  again,  return- 


15 


^^ffl 


FIGURE  12.  The  Howoiian  skipjack  tuna  fishery  is  highly  seasonal; 
peak  cotches  ore  concentrated  in  July.  Most  cotches  ore  mode  within 
20  miles  of  the  main  islands.  The  data  shown  here  summarize  18 
yeors  of  the  fleet's  operotions.  (Catches  off  Kauai  arc  not  shown  bc- 
couse  of  the  unreliability  of  the  data.)  The  averoge  annual  catch 
is  obout  5,000  tons.  The  estimated  potential  yield  of  the  central 
Pocific  is  many  times  thot  figure. 


(^^ 


5;*V.->-. 


APRIL-JUNE 


JANUARY-  MARCH 


POUNDS  PER  TRIP 
1,500-  4,500 
4,500-  6,000 
6,000-  8,000 


16 


<^^ff 


JULY- SEPTEMBER 


^^^ 


OCTOBER  -  DECEMBER 


0  20         40         60         80         100 

I  I I  I  I 


17 


inp  to  the  central  Pacific.  Several  lines  of  scientific 
investijration  have  led  to  the  formulation  of  this  hypothesis. 
They  all  point  to  the  probability  that  there  exists  in  the 
central  Pacific  a  very  large  population  of  skipjack  tuna  of 
which  the  only  central  Pacific  fishery,  that  in  Hawaii,  takes 
a  vcrv  small  amount. 


Sonar  Investigations 

Conducting  the  basic  scientific  studies  that  are  required 
to  bring  this  great  resource  into  production,  the  Laboratory 
in  Honolulu  has  equipped  one  of  its  research  vessels,  the 
Townncnd  Cromiccll,  with  a  complex,  sensitive,  and  power- 
ful electronic  device,  a  CTFM  (continuous-transmission, 
frequency-modulated)  sonar,  to  study  the  movements  of 
tunas  in  the  water.  The  sonar  emits  a  sound  signal  whose 
reflection  by  a  solid  object,  such  as  a  tuna  or  a  tuna  school, 
indicates  to  the  operator  the  distance  and  direction  of  the 
object  from  the  ship.  In  principle,  the  sonar  resembles 
radar,  but  where  the  radar  signal  is  an  electromagnetic 
wave,  the  sonar  uses  ultrasonic  pressure  waves. 

romplementintr  the  sonar  on  the  Toimsoid  CroniwcU  is 
a  1-1-channel  electronic  device  which  records  the  informa- 
tion i)rovided  by  the  sonar.  These  data  are  automatically 
converted  for  analysis  on  large  computers.  Thus  a  tuna 
becomes,  in  succession,  an  echo  picked  up  by  the  .sonar 
(appearing  on  the  sonar  screen  as  a  point  of  light),  a 
nuniljer  in  analog  form  on  magnetic  tape,  a  number  in 
digital  form  on  another  magnetic  tape,  and  eventually 
Arabic  numerals  on  a  computer  printout. 

With  information  such  as  this  scientists  at  the  Lab- 
oratory in  Honolulu  will  be  able  to  determine  the  ways 
tunas  move  about  in  the  ocean.  At  present,  most  knowledge 
depends  on  sightings  of  fish  when  they  ascend  to  the  sur- 
face in  pursuit  of  prey.  How  long  the  central  Pacific 
schools  remain  at  the  surface,  to  what  depths  they  descend, 
whether  they  always  maintain  a  schooling  formation  at 


FIGURE  13.  When  the  sonor  oboord  the  TOWNSEND  CROMWELL 
is  used  in  the  active  modefobovel,  beams  of  underwoter  sound  ore 
reflected  bock  to  the  ship  from  the  body  of  the  fish.  When  the  sonar 
is  used  in  the  possive  mode  (belowt,  a  sound-producing  device,  which 
has  been  fed  to  the  fish,  emits  a  signal  every  second,  and  from  this 
signal  the  movements  of  the  fish  can  be  followed.  A  combination  of 
the   modes  will  permit  gathering   more  information   on   fish   behavior. 


18 


night,  how  long  a  school  lasts  as  a  school  (some  scientists 
believe  it  may  be  throughout  the  lives  of  the  fish) ,  the 
routes  they  travel  in  the  central  Pacific — all  this  informa- 
tion, and  more,  will  become  available.  To  date  most  of 
the  work  has  been  done  on  schools  in  Hawaiian  waters, 
as  the  operators  have  familiarized  themselves  with  the 
equipment. 

The  scientists  are  using  the  sonar  not  only  as  active 
equipment  but  also  as  passive.  In  this  mode,  they  listen 
for  a  special  sound  transmitter  that  is  attached  (or  fed) 
to  a  fish  (fig.  13).  The  tag  now  being  used  experimentally 
is  3  inches  long  and  1  inch  in  diameter.  It  broadcasts  a 
sound  pulse  every  second.  To  date,  scientists  have  used 
the  sonic  tag  on  individual  (i.e.,  nonschooling)  tunas  and 
sharks.  They  were  able  to  track  one  shark  for  18  hours, 
the  tunas  for  shorter  periods.  They  hope  that  further 
development  of  the  sonic  tag  will  enable  them  to  track 
tuna  schools  through  the  depths  for  longer  periods  of  time. 

By  determining  the  behavior  of  individual  tunas  and  of 
tuna  schools  in  Hawaii  waters,  the  scientists  expect  to  gain 
information  that  will  allow  them  to  design  specialized  gear 
to  make  possible  the  development  of  this  great  potential 
resource,  according  to  Heeny  S.  H.  Yuen,  who  heads  the 
sonar  project. 

Skipjack  Tuna  Subpopulations 

In  January  1968,  Kazuo  Fujino  of  the  Laboratory  in 
Honolulu  spent  2  weeks  fishing  for  tuna  in  Tahiti.  His 
object  was  not  food  or  sport,  but  to  fill  small  plastic  vials 
with  blood  drawn  from  the  fish  he  caught.  Fujino  is  a 
scienti-st  whose  specialty  is  the  population  genetics  of 
marine  animals,  particularly  the  tunas,  and  blood  samples 
afford  .some  of  the  data  he  needs. 

Tuna  abound  in  Tahitian  waters.  Laboratory  research 
cruises  in  the  1950's  found  many  schools  in  the  Society  and 
nearby  Marquesas  Islands.    Skipjack  tuna  are  particularly 


plentiful.  It  was  the  skipjack  tuna  that  Fujino  flew  2,500 
miles  to  study,  for  one  large  gap  in  scientific  knowledge 
of  the  skipjack  tuna  concerns  the  precise  relation  of  the 
fish  of  the  central  South  Pacific  to  those  elsewhere. 

History  provides  incontrovertible  proof  that  man  can 
essentially  wipe  out  a  wild  species.  The  buffalo  is  a  spec- 
tacular example,  as  is  also  the  largest  of  all  living  creatures, 
the  blue  whale.  If  the  animal  species  of  the  sea  are  to  be 
used  wisely,  they  must  not  be  so  heavily  harvested  that 
they  cannot  reproduce  themselves.  In  even  an  elementary 
economy,  the  farmer  saves  seed  grain,  the  rancher  does 
not  .slaughter  all  his  breeding  animals;  in  the  as  yet 
I)rimitive  economy  of  the  sea,  which  is  based  on  hunting, 
a  fishery  might  risk  devastating  all  of  a  species,  or  all  of 
a  species  in  a  certain  area,  if  it  is  not  carefully  managed. 

Therefore  scientists  consider  it  essential  to  understand 
the  relation  of  the  fishes  in  one  area  of  the  ocean  to  those 
in  another.  Is  there  a  single  great  skipjack  tuna  population 
in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  for  example,  so  that  if  catches  were  in- 
creased in  the  central  Pacific  there  would  be  enough  of 
the  stock  left  elsewhere  to  replenish  that  area?  Or  are 
there  several  smaller  populations,  or  subpopulations,  that 
do  not  interbreed? 

The  discipline  of  population  genetics  provides  some  leads 
to  the  answers  to  these  questions.  Population  genetics  de- 
pends upon  the  fact  that  certain  characteristics  are  con- 
veyed from  one  generation  to  the  next  according  to  rather 
well-understood  laws.  In  fishes,  as  in  many  other  animals, 
some  of  these  characteristics  are  blood  types  and  the 
presence  of  certain  proteins  in  the  serum. 

Since  it  deals  with  populations,  this  branch  of  genetics 
requires  large  numbers  of  samples.  The  blood  type  of  a 
single  fish  or  a  few  dozen  fish  tells  little  or  nothing  about 
the  population  as  a  whole.  But  when  hundreds  of  fish  are 
sampled,  the  geneticist  can  draw  valid  conclusions  about 
the  population.   The  reason  is  that  isolated  subpopulations, 


19 


groups  of  fish  that  do  not  breed  with  fish  from  other 
groups,  will  display  distinct  proportions  of  blood  types  or 
other  characteristics;  these  proportions  change  only  very, 
very  slowly  with  the  generations.  Thus,  in  theory,  if  the 
fish  from  the  eastern  Pacific,  say,  never  breed  with  fish 
from  off  Japan,  then  in  the  course  of  time  distinguishable 
subpopulations  would  be  established. 

In  practical  terms,  this  would  also  mean  that  if  the  popu- 
lation from  off  Japan,  as  an  example,  were  brought  to  so 
low  a  level  it  could  not  reproduce  itself,  the  area  would 
not  be  repopulated  by  fish  from  the  eastern  Pacific,  for 
they  might  never  reach  Japan.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
single  great  freely  intermingling  population  exists,  the 
depletion  of  fish  in  any  single  area  would  probably  be 
followed  in  time  by  a  replenishment  of  the  supply. 

To  throw  light  on  the  subpopulation  structure  of  the 
tunas,  the  Laboratory  in  Honolulu  has  established  a  Tuna 
Blood  Group  Center.  To  it  come  samples  from  all  over 
the  world.  In  recent  months,  shipments  of  skipjack  tuna 
blood,  for  e.xample,  have  been  received  from  the  Gulf  of 
Guinea  (off  west  Africa),  and  from  the  Trust  Territory 
of  the  Pacific  Islands  in  the  western  Pacific;  and  Fujino 
journeyed  to  Tahiti  and  more  recently  to  Ecuador  to  obtain 
samples. 

In  all,  14,000  samples  of  tuna  blood  have  been  analyzed 
or  arc  waiting  for  analysis  at  the  Tuna  Blood  Group  Center 
fig.  14).  Because  of  the  importance  of  the  species  to 
the  future  of  tuna  fisheries  in  the  central  Pacific,  more 
blood  samples  (12,000)  have  been  taken  from  skipjack 
tuna  than  from  any  other  species,  but  albacore  are  repre- 
sented by  300  samples,  bigeye  tuna  by  500,  yellowfin  tuna 
by  700,  .southern  bluefin  tuna  by  300;  and  there  are  still 
others. 

From  this  storehouse  of  data,  Fujino  has  drawn  the 
materials  for  a  .series  of  scientific  papers  for  journals  in 
this  country  and  abroad.   In  a  paper  published  in  1967  he 


outlined  what  is  known  of  the  subpopulation  structure  of 
the  skipjack  tuna  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Writing  in  the 
"Proceedings  of  the  Forty-Seventh  Annual  Conference  of 
the  Western  Association  of  State  Game  and  Fish  Com- 
missioners," he  reported  that  the  skipjack  tuna  of  the 
tropical  western  Pacific,  those  taken  in  the  waters  of  the 
Trust  Territory,  belong  to  a  subpopulation  that  does  not 
appear  in  the  Hawaiian  fishery.  Also  different  from  the 
Hawaiian  fish  are  those  taken  in  Japanese  coastal  waters. 

The  Dividing  Line 

Seven  Japanese  fishing  vessels  operating  in  the  wide 
and  empty  reaches  of  the  North  Pacific  Ocean  west  of 
the  international  date  line  in  the  winter  of  1967-68  made 
a  catch  unexpectedly  valuable  to  science. 

The  craft  were  seeking  large  albacore,  a  tuna  taken  by 
longline  fishing.  The  longlines  also  caught  specimens  of 
skipjack  tuna.  Smaller  than  albacore,  the  skipjack  tuna 
is  taken  only  infrequently  on  longlines,  most  of  them  being 
caught  at  the  surface. 

Through  arrangements  made  by  Japanese  scientists  sam- 
ples of  blood  were  drawn  from  94  of  the  .skipjack  tuna  at 
the  Japanese  port  at  which  they  were  unloaded.  These  were 
then  shipped  by  air  to  the  Tuna  Blood  Group  Center.  There 
the  serum  was  extracted  and  subjected  to  electrophoresis. 

One  of  the  many  constituents  of  serum  is  an  enzyme 
called  esterase,  whose  biochemical  function  is  to  accelerate 
the  synthesis  or  breakdown  of  an  ester,  a  compound  of  an 
acid  and  an  alcohol.  Like  many  other  proteins,  the  e.sterase 
in  serum  varies  in  the  amount  of  electric  charge  the  indi- 
vidual molecule  carries.  This  means  that  otherwise  indistin- 
guishable esterases  will  move  at  different  rates  when  they 
are  subjected  to  an  electric  field  of  direct  current  under 
certain  chemical  conditions.  In  electrophoresis,  a  few 
milligrams  of  a  sample  of  the  sub.stance  being  tested  are 
placed  on  a  plate  of  starch  gel;  when  current  is  applied, 


20 


"    OKINAWA         /-^j  MARCUS  I. 

/    1 

MARIANAS 


V 


FIGURE  14.  Somples  of  tuna  blood  and  other  specimens  for  im- 
munogenctic  determinotion  have  been  collected  of  the  locations  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean  shown  here.  In  addition,  the  Loborotory  has  ona- 
lyzed  samples  from  the  Atlantic  Oceon.  Chief  finding  to  dote  is  that 
there  arc  pronounced  differences  in  the  genetic  composition  of  tuna 
populations  in  the  wastern  Pacific  (areas  enclosed  by  dashed  lines)  ond 
those  in  the  central  and  eastern  Pacific  (orcas  enclosed  by  solid 
lines).  Shading  indicates  that  numerous  samples  hove  been  token 
from  the  area.  The  dividing  line  between  the  two  subpopulotions  lies, 
in  winter,  somewhere  near  Marcus  Islond.  The  western  Pacific  sample 
shown   to  the  northeast  of  Marcus   Island    wos  collected   in   summer. 


21 


the  protein  migrates  toward  the  anode,  the  positive  pole. 
The  different  forms  of  esterase  are  characterized  l)y  their 
relative  mobility,  the  rate  of  migration.  The  samples  are 
strained  with  a  dye  so  that  they  appear  as  brown  bands 
on  the  plate.  Thus  after  the  samples  have  been  treated 
for  a  period  of  a  few  hours,  there  will  be  bands  on  different 
parts  of  the  plates. 

What  the  possession  of  these  subtly  different  types  of 
esterase  may  mean  physiologically  to  the  fish  is  uncertain, 
except  for  the  broad  biochemical  function  noted  above.  The 
thing  that  makes  serum  esterase  interesting  to  fishery 
biologists  is  the  fact  that  the  distribution  of  the  several 
forms  is  genetically  controlled.  In  the  serum  esterase 
system  in  skipjack  tuna,  six  phenotypes  commonly  occur, 
resulting  from  various  combinations  of  three  main  types  of 
serum  esterase.  If  the  proportions  of  each  of  these  six 
types  in  fairly  large  samples  differ  consistently  between 


populations,    then    those    jjopulations    can    be    said    to    be 
genetically  distinct. 

On  the  basis  of  the  serum  esterase  system,  Fujino  has 
found  that  skipjack  tuna  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  can  be  split 
into  two  poi)ulations:  one  found  near  the  Japanese  i,slands 
and  to  the  south  of  them  in  the  Marianas  and  Palau,  and 
another  found  off  the  west  coast  of  Baja  California,  Tahiti, 
the  Line  Islands,  and  Hawaii.  And  what  made  the  samples 
taken  by  the  Jajiaiicse  fishermen  operating  between  the 
date  line  and  JaiKin  so  important,  was  that  when  propor- 
tions of  six  esterase  forms  are  counted  these  samples 
proved  to  be  of  fish  not  from  the  nearby  western  Pacific 
group,  but  indistinguishable  from  tho.se  of  the  eastern  and 
central  Pacific.  Thus  a  possible  boundary  between  the 
populations  lies  far  to  the  west  of  the  inlcrnalional  date 
line,  a  fact  not  known  before. 


THE  SHRIMP  RESOURCE 


Recent  studies  of  the  shrimp  and  bottom  fish  resources 
of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  showed  that  a  possible  commercial 
venture  could  be  initiated  for  a  low  volume  specialty  mar- 
ket. Oceanic  islands,  such  as  the  main  ones  in  the  Hawaiian 
chain,  are  characterized  by  narrow  underwater  shelves. 
Water  more  than  a  mile  deep  can  be  found  within  6  miles 
of  the  Hawaiian  shore.  Thus  a  large  resource  of  animals 
that  live  on  or  near  the  bottom  in  .shallow  water  could 
scarcely  be  expected  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 

In  an  early  investigation  of  these  demersal  resources  of 
the  Hawaiian  Islands,  a  study  of  the  fauna  to  a  depth  of 
about  5,000  feet  was  made  in  1902  on  the  Albdtross,  re- 
search vessel  of  the  U.S.  Fi.sh  Commission   (a  predecessor 


of  the  Bureau  of  Commercial  Fisheries).  According  to 
Howard  O.  Yoshida,  Laboratory  scientist  who  headed  the 
trawling  surveys  in  1967  and  1968,  most  of  the  published 
records  of  deep-water  fishes  and  invertebrates  from  Ha- 
waii are  based  on  specimens  caught  on  the  Albatross  survey. 
Between  October  1967  and  May  1968  the  Laboratory  in 
Honolulu,  in  cooperation  with  the  Hawaii  Institute  of  Ma- 
rine Biology,  University  of  Hawaii,  made  three  exploratory 
bottom  trawling  cruises  on  the  Townsend  Cromwell  (fig. 
1.5).  The  strategy  adopted  in  the  surveys  was  first  to 
locate  the  most  promising  areas  on  the  basis  of  depth 
data  and  bottom  notations  on  navigational  charts,  and  then 
make  detailed  echo-sounding  transects  in  those  areas.   Bot- 


22 


A^^^^ 
^^^^^, 


tom-grab  samples  were  taken  to  confirm  the  existence  of 
trawlable  bottom  as  indicated  by  the  echogram.  The  sur- 
veys were  restricted  to  a  depth  of  3,000  feet  or  less.  About 
one-tenth  of  the  potential  area  of  this  depth  was  surveyed, 
and  a  little  less  than  half  of  this  area  was  found  to  be 
trawlable.  The  largest  trawlable  expanse  was  north  of  the 
i.sland  of  Maui,  where  drags  as  long  as  4  hours  were 
made.  A  total  of  119  trawl  drags  was  made  around  the 
islands.  The  most  promising  find,  from  a  commercial 
standpoint,  was  a  large  penaeid  shrimp,  Penaeus  mar- 
uinalvs  (fig.  16).  Other  potentially  valuable  species  were 
deep-water  flatfishes  about  6  inches  long. 

After  the  surveys,  Yoshida  concluded  that  although  the 
Hawaiian  waters  do  offer  the  possibility  for  establishing 
a  commercial  shrimp  fishery,  the  resource  is  too  small  to 
supply  anything  but  a  minor,  specialty  market. 


FIGURE  15.  The  moin  Hawaiian  Islands,  showing  the  1,000-fothom 
(6,000-foot)  depth  contours.  The  crosshotching  shows  the  orcos 
surveyed  by  the  TOWNSEND  CROMWELL,  Darker  oreas  show 
principol  concentrations  of  shrimp.  These  large  shrimp  were  the 
most  promising  find,  from  a  commercial  standpoint.  Many  small, 
deep-water  flatfishes  were  also  token. 


20       30        40        50 


23 


24 


THE  LONGLINE  RESOURCE 


The  tuna  populations  of  the  various  parts  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  may  or  may  not  be  interrelated  biologically,  but 
economically  the  fisheries  most  certainly  are.  A  substan- 
tial portion  of  the  American  demand  for  tuna  has  for  years 
been  supplied  by  Japanese  vessels  operating  in  the  Pacific, 
Indian,  and  Atlantic  Oceans.  Several  studies,  some  of  them 
by  the  Laboratory  in  Honolulu,  suggest  that  the  longline 
fleet  is  finding  the  tunas  of  the  Pacific  less  plentiful  than 
in  the  past. 

What  is  happening  to  the  fishery  for  the  tunas  is  exem- 
plified in  an  American  possession,  American  Samoa.  The 
principal  element  in  the  private  economy  of  American 
Samoa  is  the  fish  business  (fig.  17).  The  two  canneries 
there,  which  are  American-owned,  provide  jobs  for  about 
1,130  American  Samoans  (of  a  total  population  of  about 
20,000  persons,  over  half  of  whom  are  children),  and  have 


payrolls  estimated  in  1964  by  a  French  observer,  F. 
Doumenge,  at  $2  million  (in  1968  the  figure  would  be 
higher).  The  canneries  depend  for  their  supply  upon 
foreign  vessels  that  fish  almost  across  the  breadth  of  thf 
South  Pacific  Ocean  (fig.  18).  About  70  percent  of  the 
catch  consists  of  albacore. 

The  Laboratory  in  Honolulu  has  carefully  watched  the 
fishery  from  its  inception  in  1954  and  since  196.3  has  main- 
tained a  field  station  in  Pago  Pago.  Analyses  of  the  catch 
by  biologist  Tamio  Otsu  and  his  associates  are  beginning 
to  suggest  that  the  vessels  will  continue  to  find  the  albacore 
loss  profitable  to  catch.  A  declining  albacore  fishery  would 
be  a  serious  threat  to  the  island's  economy.  The  Labora- 
tory is  continuing  its  studies  and  is  preparing  detailed 
scientific  analvses  of  the  catches. 


THE  OCEANIC  ENVIRONMENT 


Oceanographic  studies  at  the  Laboratory  in  Honolulu 
are  designed  to  provide  environmental  information  in  the 
areas  of  interest  affecting  the  distribution  of  tunas.    This 


FIGURE  16.  Large  shrimp  okin  to  those  that  provide  the  bulk  of  the 
fishery  elsewhere  in  the  world  were  located  on  the  ocean  floor  off 
Hawaii.  Although  they  run  as  large  os  eight  to  the  pound  (heods  on) 
. — shrimp  of  good  commercial  size — it  appears  that  the  resource  is 
limited  and  can  support  no  more  than  a  small,  local,  specialty  morket. 


is  being  done  through  (1)  Pacificwide  studies  of  the  ver- 
tical and  horizontal  distribution  of  water  properties,  water 
masses,  and  field  of  motion  through  the  analysis  of  a 
historic  stockpile  of  oceanographic  .station  data,  (2)  .studies 
of  the  oceanographic  climate  in  the  trade  wind  zone  of  the 
North  Pacific,  and  {?•)  studies  of  island  wake  systems.  The 
Pacificwide  .studies  form  the  basis  of  an  "Oceanographic 
atlas  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,"  by  Richard  A.  Barkley,  pub- 
lished In-  the  University  of  Hawaii  Press  late  in  1968.  The 
other  two  investigations  will  be  discussed  below. 


25 


FIGURE  17.  Fishing  in  American  Samoa  runs  the  gamut  from  the 
subsistence  level  to  on  industrialized  operation  that  employs  o  sub- 
stantial pcrcentogc  of  the  citizens  of  American  Samoa.  Left, 
women  and  children  search  the  reef  for  mollusks.    They  cat  the  ani 


mals,  use  the  shells  for  the  manufacture  of  curios.  Right,  frozen 
olbacore  cought  in  the  South  Pacific  Ocean  are  unloaded  for  canning 
ot  one  of  the  two  Americon-owned  conneries  in  American  Samoa. 


26 


Fish  and  the  Weather 

In  his  Trade  Wind  Zone  Oceanography  Pilot  Study  of 
1964-65,  oceanographer  Gunter  R.  Seckel  compiled  18 
months  of  data  on  oceanographic  changes  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  He  is  now  seeking  to  relate  these 
changes  to  conditions  in  the  atmosphere.  He  has  computed 
heat  exchange  between  the  sea  and  atmosphere  from  the 
Equator  to  lat.  35°  N.,  and  between  long.  30°  and  170°  W. 
This  is  a  region  dominated  by  the  trade  winds.  He  has 
found  that  because  of  the  prevalence  of  the  trade  winds, 
the  Hawaiian  area  is  chiefly  one  in  which  heat  is  lost  from 
the  ocean  by  the  process  of  evaporation.  Thus  when  the 
ocean  waters  warm  significantly,  they  do  so  not  primarily 
because  of  seasonal  atmospheric  changes  in  the  immediate 
area  but  because  of  advection — warmer  waters  have  en- 
tered the  area  from  the  south  and  southeast. 

The  scale  of  this  advection  is  related  to  the  intensity  of 
the  trade  winds  and  the  location  of  their  center,  he  says. 
These  vary  from  season  to  season  and  from  year  to  year. 

For  the  12-month  periods  July  1963  to  June  1964  and 
July  1964  to  June  1965,  there  were  net  heat  los-ses  from 
the  sea  surface  in  the  trade  wind  zone,  although  these 
losses  were  different  for  the  2  years.  Since  the  amount 
of  radiation  from  the  sun  and  sky  varies  little  from 
year  to  year,  the  differences  were  due  primarily  to  differ- 
ences in  the  rates  of  evaporation  and  these,  in  turn,  were 
primarily  due  to  differences  in  wind  speed. 


FIGURE  18.  The  olbocore  fishery  based  in  Americon  Samoa  has  grown 
rapidly  and  spread  over  a  vast  area  in  the  South  Pacific  Ocean. 
Catch  per  unit  of  effort,  however,  is  declining.  This  decrease,  which 
is  appearing  in  other  major  tuna  fisheries,  makes  it  all  the  more 
imperative  that  the  central  Pacific  skipjack  tuna  resource  be  brought 
into  production. 


27 


Advection  is  clearly  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  heat 
exchange  equations  for  Koko  Head  from  February  to 
September  1964  disclosed  a  net  loss  during  this  period.  Yet 
there  was  a  substantial  increase  in  the  temperature  of  the 
surface  waters.  This  increase  was  due  to  the  northward 
transport  of  water  by  currents. 

Seckel  has  presented  evidence  that  the  appearance  of 
the  season  tuna  in  the  island  area  is  closely  correlated  with 
changes  in  oceanographic  conditions,  and  particularly  the 
presence  of  warm  water  of  relatively  low  salinity  that  flows 
into  the  area  from  the  south  and  southeast. 

Wakes  in  the  Lee  of  Islands 

Skipjack  tuna  of  the  eastern  and  central  Pacific  are 
found  over  a  range  of  about  6,000  miles.  As  a  rule  they 
are  caught,  as  is  obvious  from  figure  12,  no  more  than  a 
few  miles  from  the  islands  in  Hawaii,  and  in  the  eastern 
Pacific  as  far  as  k  few  hundred  miles  offshore.  If  these 
very  small  needles  in  a  very  wet  haystack  are  to  be  located, 
our  knowledge  of  the  mechanisms  that  concentrate  them, 
i.e.,  oceanographic  conditions,  needs  expansion. 

The  very  first  oceanographic  cruise  conducted  by  the 
Laboratory  in  Honolulu  in  1949  located  a  natural  phenom- 
enon the  implications  of  which  are  only  now  being  ex- 
plored. To  the  we.st  of  the  great  island  of  Hawaii  a  wide 
counterclockwise  eddy  was  found.  On  a  subsequent  fishery 
exploration  cruise  in  the  area,  skipjack  tuna  schools  were 
found  to  be  more  plentiful  near  the  eddy  (350  miles  from 
land)  than  near  the  shores  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  Later, 
in  1962,  E.  C.  Jones,  a  Laboratory  scientist,  studied  the 
"island  effect"  on  the  zooplankton  (which  make  up  part  of 
the  tuna's  food)  near  the  Marquesas  Islands  in  the  central 
South  Pacific  Ocean.  He  found  inshore  forms  of  zooplank- 
ton organisms  much  farther  to  sea  (80-100  miles)  than 
could  be  explained  by  the  operation  of  pure  chance. 


Thus  the  presence  of  islands  in  the  ocean  might  alter 
the  productivity  of  the  waters  considerably  beyond  the 
immediate  shores. 

A  mechanism  that  could  explain  the  presence  of  near- 
shore  copepods  far  to  sea  and  the  presence  of  tuna  con- 
centrations hundreds  of  miles  from  the  nearest  islands  has 
now  been  advanced  by  Richard  A.  Barkley,  an  oceano- 
grapher  at  the  Laboratory  in  Honolulu.  He  has  postulated 
that  an  island  standing  in  the  path  of  an  ocean  current 
would  set  up  what  is  known  as  a  von  Karman  wake,  a 
disturbance  in  the  stream  that  results  in  the  regular  for- 
mation of  eddies  that  move  downstream  some  distance  from 
the  island  (the  distance  depending  on  the  island's  size 
and  the  strength  of  the  current) .  To  test  this  theory,  the 
Toxvnsend  Cromwell  and  Charles  H.  Gilbert  went  to  sea 
in  January  and  February  1968  to  study  the  structure  of 
the  current  downstream  from  the  large  island  of  Hawaii 
(diameter  about  80  miles)  and  tiny  Johnston  Island  (dia- 
meter about  10  miles) .  At  Johnston  they  found  a  wake  that 
neatly  fitted  the  theory  (fig.  19).  Eddies  rotating  clock- 
wise and  counterclockwise  formed  alternately  in  the  lee  of 
the  island.  They  took  about  2  days  to  form  and  grow  to  full 
size.  When  they  reached  maturity,  they  began  to  migrate 
downstream  (northwest)  at  a  rate  of  about  2.2  miles  a  day. 
The  eddies  were  about  50  miles  across.  The  picture  off  Ha- 
waii was  more  complex,  owing  to  interference  from  other 
nearby  islands,  but  eddies  of  the  expected  size  and  speed 
were  found. 

Since  the  counterclockwise  eddies  are  divergent,  bringing 
cool,  enriched  water  near  the  surface,  they  should  be  more 
productive  than  adjacent  waters  and  consequently  provide 
more  forage  for  fishes,  including  tunas.  The  eddies  also 
would  explain  the  non-random  dispersion  of  nearshore 
forms  far  to  sea  observed  bv  Jones. 


28 


320' 


140° 


230° 


Off  the  island  of  Hawaii,  Laboratory  scientists  have 
found  counterclockwise  eddies  several  times.  They  are 
much  larger  than  off  Johnston  Island,  and  more  persistent 
(fiK.  20). 

E-xplanation  of  the  wake  phenomenon  might  exjilain 
many  heretofore  puzzling  observations.  Practically,  it  could 
allow  fishery  scientists  to  pinpoint  areas  in  which  concen- 
trations of  valuable  fishes   might  reasonably  be  found. 


FIGURE  19.  Off  tiny  Johnston  Island,  820  miles  southwest  of  Hono- 
lulu, oceonogrophers  from  the  Laboratory  found  a  woke  set  up  on  the 
downstream  side  of  the  island.  Remarkably  regular  in  pottern,  a  series 
of  eddies  wos  found  in  the  lee  of  the  island,  rotating  clockwise  and 
counterclockwise  olternotely,  and  moving  downstream.  Compass  di- 
rections ore  given. 


THE  MENACE  OF  OIL  SPILLAGE 


Wake  Island,  a  tiny  atoll  halfway  between  Hawaii  and 
(luani,  is  a  refueling  point  on  some  Honolulu-Tokyo  flights. 
In  Seiitenil)er  1067  it  was  the  site  of  two  disasters,  one  of 
which  essentially  cancelled  the  effects  of  the  other. 

Karly  in  the  month,  the  18,000-ton  tanker,  R.  C.  Stoner, 
which  was  loaded  with  ,iet  fuel,  aviation  gas,  and  a  small 
amount  of  bunker  oil,  ran  aground  on  the  reef  about  600 


feet  outside  the  entrance  to  the  boat  harbor  at  Wake.  As 
her  cargo  leaked  out,  it  spread  over  the  small  harbor  and 
washed  ashore  on  the  ad.iaccnt  beaches.  Damage  to  marine 
life  was  fortunately  very  slight.  Two  Bureau  staff  mem- 
bers were  .sent  to  Wake  to  assess  possible  damage  and  to 
gain  experience  which  would  be  useful  in  case  a  similar 
disaster  occurred  elsewhere  in  the  Hawaii  Area. 


29 


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^ 


4 


^ 


7 


^ 


T^^^ 


^ 


^ffl^^ 


8 


^^^^^^ 


> 


^ 


^ 


^ffl^^ 


^ 


FIGURE  20.  The  363,000  square  miles  of  the  Hawaiian  areo  have 
been  shrunk  to  the  size  of  a  large  pool  toble  in  a  three-dimensional 
scale  model  at  the  Laboratory  in  Honolulu.  By  injecting  dye  into  the 
woter,  scientists  can  study  the  development  of  eddies  in  the  lee  of 
the   islonds.     Here   is   on   ortist's   rendering   of  one   such   experiment. 


showing  the  effects  of  a  flow  of  water  from  the  northwest  (typical 
summer  conditions).  As  the  current  moves  Ground  the  islands,  large 
persistent  eddies  ore  formed  in  their  wake.  The  experiments  shown 
here  represent  obout  a  month  of  steady  northeostcrly  flow. 


30 


FIGURE  21.  The  18,000-ton  tanker  R.  C.  STONER  lies  ot  the  mercy 
of  the  seo  on  the  reef  off  the  entronce  to  the  smoll-boat  horbor  at 
Woke  Islond  (upper  left).  Fuel  leoked  from  the  domoged  tanker 
ond  woshed  oshore  (upper  right).  Oil  in  the  adjacent  small-boat 
harbor  reached  a  depth  of  obout  3  to  4  inches.  This  wos  pumped  off 


to  a  nearby  pit  and  burned  (lower  left).  Some  fishes  of  the  reef  were 
killed  (lower  right);  however,  o  fishery  biologist  from  the  Loboratory 
in  Honolulu  found  a  plentiful  ond  apparently  unaffected  fish  popula- 
tion when  he  made  dives  not  for  from  the  polluted  beaches. 


31 


The  two  Bureau  staff  members,  Reginald  M.  Gooding, 
fishery  biologist,  and  Ollie  Custer,  physical  science  techni- 
cian, flew  to  Wake  on  September  13  and  made  several 
surveys  of  the  beaches  and  the  waters  just  offshore.  Both 
are  skilled  divers. 

The  jet  fuel  mixed  with  the  water  and  gave  it  a  straw 
color.  Diving  near  the  tanker,  Gooding  and  Custer  found 
that  contaminated  water  irritated  their  skin.  They  ob- 
served schools  of  fish  swimming  normally  in  it,  apparently 
unharmed. 

According  to  Gooding  and  Custer,  damage  to  the  marine 
life  of  the  atoll  was  confined  to  the  boat  harbor  and  to  a 
narrow  strip  of  water  along  about  2  miles  of  beach.  They 
estimated  that  perhaps  3  tons  or  more  fish  and  other  ani- 
mals washed  up  on  the  beach,  killed  by  the  deadly  seepage 


(fig.  21).  Over  90  percent  of  these  consisted  of  typical 
fishes  of  tropical  reefs,  such  as  parrotfish,  squirrelfish, 
and  grouper. 

On  September  17,  the  140-mile-an-hour  winds  of  typhoon 
Sarah  struck  Wake,  causing  great  damage  to  buildings  and 
other  structures.  It  blew  away  all  the  oil,  however,  and 
even  partially  scoured  the  oil  fouled  rocky  banks  of  the 
boat  harbor.  After  the  typhoon,  the  water  had  returned 
to  its  usually  clear  turquoise  color. 

Several  circumstances  combined  to  keep  the  fish  kill 
at  a  minimum,  Gooding  says.  The  two  most  important  of 
these  were  (1)  the  cargo  was  not  primarily  bunker  oil 
and  (2)  the  coastal  terrain  was  such  that  much  of  the 
fuel  accumulated  in  a  small-boat  harbor  and  none  was  able 
to  enter  the  shallow  lagoon. 


INTERNATIONAL  ACTIVITIES 


The  Hawaii  Area,  BCF,  because  of  its  scientific  interests, 
because  of  the  presence  on  its  staff  of  recognized  author- 
ities in  fisheries  research,  and,  to  some  degree,  because  of 
its  geographic  location,  is  deeply  involved  in  international 
activities.  Some  of  these  are  described  here. 

At  the  request  of  the  Department  of  State,  John  C. 
Marr,  Hawaii  Area  Director,  has  served  for  several  years 
as  U.S.  delegate  on  the  Indo-Pacific  Fisheries  Council, 
the  oldest  of  the  regional  councils  sponsored  by  FAO  (Food 
and  Agriculture  Organization  of  the  United  Nations)  ; 
he  is  currently  serving  as  Vice-Chairman ;  in  1966,  the 
Hawaii  Area  played  host  to  the  12th  Session  of  the 
Council.  The  Director,  Hawaii  Area,  serves  as  a  member 
of  the  Fisheries  Advisory  Committee  of  the  South  Pacific 
Commission. 


In  May  1968,  at  the  invitation  of  the  U.S.  Civil  Adminis- 
tration of  the  Ryukyu  Lslands  and  the  Government  of  the 
Ryukyu  Islands,  three  members  of  the  Hawaii  Area  staff 
conducted  a  fisheries  workshop  in  the  Ryukyus. 

At  the  request  of  the  Department  of  State,  the  Director, 
Hawaii  Area,  serves  as  U.S.  National  Coordinator  for  CSK 
(the  Cooperative  Study  of  the  Kuroshio  and  Adjacent 
Regions)  ;  by  election  among  the  National  Coordinators, 
he  also  serves  as  Assistant  International  Coordinator  for 
Fisheries;  in  April-May  1968,  he  served  as  Convenor  of 
a  Symposium  on  the  Results  of  the  CSK,  which  was  held 
in  Hawaii,  and  participated  in  the  subsequent  Fifth  Meet- 
ing of  the  International  Coordinating  Group.  The  Kuro- 
shio (literally,  "Black  Stream")  is  a  warm  oceanic  current 
of  variable  width,  depth,  and  intensity  that  sweeps  from 


32 


?¥V% 


FIGURE  22.  These  charocters  ore  for  the  Kuroshio,  literally  "Block 
Streom."  Originating  in  the  tropical  and  subtropical  woters  of  the 
western  Pacific,  the  great  worm  stream  sweeps  olong  much  of  the 
east  coast  of  Jopan  before  turning  eostword.  Associated  with  it  are 
some  of  the  richest  fisheries  in  the  world. 


the  tropical  latitudes  of  the  western  Pacific  Ocean  alon^ 
the  Pacific  shore  of  Japan  as  far  north  as  northern  Honshu 
and  then  veers  to  the  east-northeast  (fig.  22).  It  lo.ses 
its  identity  as  a  distinct  current  near  long.  160°  K.,  where 
it  merges  into  the  great  east-flowing  North  Pacific  Cur- 
rent which  dominates  the  circulation  in  midlatitudes  east 
of  the  international  date  line. 

Some  of  the  great  fisheries  of  Japan  are  located  in  or 
near  the  Kuroshio.  Partly  as  a  result  of  this  circumstance, 
the  Kuroshio  system  has  been  under  intensive  study  since 
the  late  19th  century.  Immense  amounts  of  data  have 
been  collected  over  the  years,  but  oceanographers  have 
long  recognized  that  there  continued  to  be  rather  wide 
gaps  in  their  knowledge  of  this  interesting  and  productive 
region. 

In  the  early  1960's  a  group  of  marine  scientists  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  a  broad-scale  international  study  to  fill 
in  some  of  these  gaps.  CSK  was  established  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  United  Nations  Educational,  Scientific,  and 
Cultural  Organization  (UNESCO).  Fishery  aspects  of  the 
investigation  were  coordinated  by  FAO. 

Eleven  nations  have  agreed  to  cooperate  in  the  .study: 
the  Republic  of  China,  Indonesia,  Japan,  the  Republic  of 
Korea,  the  Republic  of  the  Philippines,  Singapore,  Thai- 
land, the  United  Kingdom  (Hong  Kong),  the  United  States, 
the  U.S.S.R.,  and  South  Viet  Nam.  The  directing  body  of 
CSK  is  an  International  Coordinating  Group,  whose  mem- 
bers are  the  National  Coordinators  and  Assistant  National 
Coordinators  of  the  various  nations.  These  officials  are 
selected  by  their  governments. 

The  scientists  who  planned  CSK  recognized  that  the 
origins  of  the  great  current  must  lie  far  to  the  south  of 
Japan  and  that  the  Kuroshio  influences  and  is  influenced 
by  oceanographic  and  meteorological  conditions  over  a  very 
wide  sector  of  the  western  Pacific  (hence  the  "ad.jacent 
regions"  of  the  title) .   The  area  nominally  under  investiga- 


33 


FIGURE  23.  Eleven  notions  hare  joined  in  the  study  of  the  Kuroshio 
and  adjacent  regions,  which  hove  been  defined,  as  shown  here,  as 
extending  from  long.  160°  E.  to  the  Asian  Continent,  ond  from  New 
Guineo  to  northern  Jopon.  Included  in  the  area  is  the  Trust  Terri- 
tory  of   the    Pacific    Islands,   which    the    United    States    administers. 


tion  reaches  from  long.  160°  E.  (a  few  hundred  miles  from 
Wake  Island)  to  the  shores  of  Asia,  and  from  Hokkaido 
in  the  north  to  New  Guinea  in  the  south  (fig.  23).  It  thus 
embraces  about  6  million  square  miles,  or  an  area  two- 
thirds  the  size  of  the  North  American  Continent. 

Field  work  under  CSK  began  in  1965.  By  1968,  a  total 
of  98  oceanographic  cruises  had  been  completed.  At  times 
as  many  as  19  vessels  of  several  nations  were  working 
simultaneously  in  the  region  and  under  a  coordinated  plan 
of  operation — probably  something  of  a  record  in  the  his- 
tory of  oceanography.  An  oceanographic  data  center  had 
been  established  in  Japan  and  a  plankton  sorting  center  in 
Singapore.  These  centers  process  data  from  the  cruises 
of  the  several  nations  and  issue  reports  synthesizing  infor- 
mation obtained.  Several  such  reports  had  appeared,  and 
a  scant  handful  of  analytical  papers  had  been  published 
in  the  scientific  journals,  but  until  May  1968  in  Hawaii, 
there  had  been  no  opportunity  for  general  review  of  the 
scientific  results  of  this  massive  oceanographic  enterprise. 

That  opportunity  came  at  the  Symposium  on  the  results 
of  the  CSK,  held  at  the  East-West  Center,  University  of 
Hawaii,  April  29  to  May  2,  1968.  The  symposium  was  at- 
tended by  representatives  of  all  the  CSK  nations  except 
Indonesia  and  Viet  Nam.  There  were  14  participants  from 
the  United  States,  7  from  Japan,  5  from  China,  4  from 
Thailand,  3  each  from  Hong  Kong,  Korea,  and  the  U.S.S.R., 
2  from  Singapore,  and  1  from  the  Philippines;  observers 
attended  from  UNESCO,  FAO,  the  World  Meteorological 
Organization,  the  Indo-Pacific  Fisheries  Council,  and  the 
Pacific  Science  Association. 

Immediately  after  the  Symposium,  on  May  3  and  4, 
the  International  Coordinating  Group  held  its  fifth  meet- 
ing, at  which  National  Coordinators  reviewed  the  findings 
of  the  Symposium  and  charted  the  future  course  of  CSK. 


34 


Many  new  findings  were  discussed  at  the  Symposium. 
Some  were  interesting  because  they  were  unexpected:  For 
example,  aggregation  of  fishes  around  drifting  objects  has 
aroused  much  speculation;  at  the  Symposium  IVTotoo  Inoue 
and  his  colleagues  of  Japan  reported  that  tunas  cluster 
around  drifting  logs  only  if  those  are  infested  with  particu- 
lar species  of  burrowing  animals  that  the  tunas  find  tasty. 
Some  papers  suggested  that  the  authors  had  discovered 
basic  principles  of  how  the  physical  world  behaves:  Kozo 
Yoshida  of  Japan  and  other  scientists  have  found  what 
may  be  a  global  phenomenon  never  described  before — 
narrow,  persistent  bands  of  eastward  flowing  waters  in 
the  subtropics.  Richard  A.  Barkley  of  the  Laboratory 
in  Honolulu  presented  a  refinement  of  his  model  of  the 
Kuroshio-Oyashio  front,  which  he  sees  as  a  pair  of  von 
Karnian  vortex  streets  arranged  side  by  side.  Some  papers 
resolved  previous  speculation:  Kazuo  Fujino  of  the  Labora- 
tory in  Honolulu  showed  that — as  has  been  discussed — 
the  skipjack  tuna  of  the  western  Pacific  clearly  differ 
genetically  from  those  of  the  central  and  eastern  Pacific 
Ocean.  Other  papers  possessed  an  interest  that  transcended 
the  narrowly  scientific:  The  group  of  Thai  biologists  led 
by  Deb  Menasveta  reported  on  the  bottom  fish  resources 
of  the  Gulf  of  Thailand  and  the  Sunda  Shelf.  Already 
the  basis  of  a  rapidly  growing  fishery,  these  resources 
might  contribute  strongly  to  feeding  the  inhabitants  of  a 
vei-y  populous  and  often  hungry  part  of  the  world  if  pres- 


ent catches  can  be  sustained  and  similar  catches  made  in 
other  shallow  areas  in  the  South  China  Sea. 

It  was  readily  apparent  at  the  meeting  that  the  bulk 
of  the  work  had  been  done  in  the  northern  sector  of  the 
CSK  region.  One  of  the  strongest  recommendations  of  the 
International  Coordinating  Group  was  that  work  be  intensi- 
fied in  the  South  China  Sea,  an  area  which  has  been  largely 
neglected  scientifically.  The  International  Coordinating 
Group  agreed  that  synoptic  surveys  in  the  Pacific  Ocean 
(i.  e.,  to  the  east  and  south  of  Japan)  should  end  in  1970, 
but  stressed  that  no  closing  date  can  yet  be  established  on 
the  work  in  the  South  China  Sea.  Thus  the  next  few  years 
are  likely  to  see  intensified  cooperative  work  in  that  area; 
this  decision  was  one  of  the  prime  results  of  the  meeting. 

Another  recommendation  was  that  a  second  CSK  Sym- 
posium be  scheduled  for  1970.  The  group  also  recom- 
mended that  the  results  of  this  first  Symposium  be  reported 
in  two  volumes  under  the  editorship  of  John  C.  Marr. 

The  CSK  meeting  was  the  third  in  a  series  of  meetings  on 
fisheries  and  oceanography  that  have  been  arranged  by  the 
Laboratory  in  Honolulu  and  held  at  the  East-West  Center 
in  the  past  few  years,  the  first  being  the  12th  Session  of 
the  Indo-Pacific  Fisheries  Council  in  1966,  the  second 
the  meeting  of  the  planning  committee  for  a  conference 
on  the  role  of  fisheries  and  oceanography  in  the  economic 
development  of  the  Pacific  Basin  in  February  1968. 


35 


REPORTS* 

January  1,  1967  to  June  30  1968 


BARKLEY,  RICHARD  A. 

19C7.  The  impact  of  computers  on  science.   Proc.  Hawaiian  Acad. 
Sci.,  42  Annu.    Meet.,  1966-1967,  pp.  27-29. 

1967.  Is  the  boundary  between  the  Kuroshio  and  Oyashio  a  com- 
pound vortex  street?    [Abstract.]    CSK   Newsletter  9:    11. 

1968.  Domesticating  the  sea:  prospects  and  problems.    Hawaiian 
Sugar   Technologists,   1967   Rep.,   pp.    179-187. 

1968.  The  Kuroshio-Oyashio  front  as  a  compound  vortex  street. 

J.  Mar.  Res.  26(2):  83-104. 
In  press.  The  Kuroshio-Oyashio  front:  a  system  of  near-station- 
ary vortices.    [Abstract.]  In  John  C.  Marr  (editor),  Kuro- 
shio    Symposium:     Report     of     the     Symposium     on     the 
Cooperative  Study  of  the  Kuroshio  and  Adjacent  Regions 
(CSK).  FAO. 
In  press.  Oceanographic  atlas  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.    University 
of   Hawaii   Press. 
BROCK,  VERNON   E.,  and  RICHARD   N.   UCHIDA. 

In  press.  Some  operational  aspects  of  the  Hawaii  live-bait  fishery 
for  skipjack  tuna  (Katsuwonus  pelamis).    U.S.  Fish  Wildl. 
Serv.,  Spec.   Sci.  Rep.  Fish.  574. 
CHANG,  RANDOLPH  K.  C,  and  JOHN  J.  MAGNUSON. 

1968.  A  radiographic  method  for  determining  gas  bladder  volume 
of  fish.    Copeia   1968:   187-189. 
CHARNELL,  ROBERT  L. 

1967.  Long-wave     radiation    near     the     Hawaiian     Islands.     J. 
Geophys.    Res.    72:  489-495. 
CHARNELL,   ROBERT  L.,  DAVID   W.  K.   AU,  and   GUNTER  R. 
SECKEL. 

1967.  The  Trade  Wind  Zone  Oceanography  Pilot  Study,  Part  I: 
Tojvnsend  Cromivell  cruises  1,  2,  and  3,  February  to  April 
1964.  U.S.  Fi.sh  Wildl.  Serv.,  Spec.  Sci.  Rep.  Fish  552,  v  -f- 
75  pp. 
1967.  The  Trade  Wind  Zone  Oceanography  Pilot  Study,  Part  II: 
Totimsend  Cromwell  cruises  4,  5,  and  6,  May  to  July  1964. 
U.S.  Fi.sh  Wildl.  Serv.,  Spec.  Sci.  Rep.  Fish.  553,  v  -f-  78 
pp. 


1967.  The  Trade  Wind  Zone  Oceanography  Pilot  Study,  Part  III : 
Toivnsend  Cromwell  cruises  8,  9,  and  10,  September  to 
November  1964.  U.S.  Fish  Wildl.  Serv.,  Spec.  Sci.  Rep. 
Fish.  554,  v  -1-   78  pp. 

1967.  The  Trade  Wind  Zone  Oceanography  Pilot  Study,  Part  IV: 
Tow7iscnd  Cromwell  cruises  11,  12,  and  13,  December  1964 
to  February  1965.  U.S.  Fish  Wildl.  Serv.,  Spec.  Sci.  Rep. 
Fish.  555,  v  -f   78  pp. 

1967.  The  Trade  Wind  Zone  Oceanography  Pilot  Study,  Part  V: 
Townsend  Cromwell  cruises  14  and  15,  March  and  April 
1965.  U.S.  Fish  Wildl.  Serv.,  Spec.  Sci.  Rep.  Fish.  556,  iv 
+    54   pp. 

1967.  The  Trade  Wind  Zone  Oceanography  Pilot  Study,  Part  VI: 
Toivnsend  Cromwell  cruises  16,  17,  and  21,  May  and  June 
1965  and  January  1966.   U.S.  Fish.  Wildl.  Serv.,  Spec.  Sci. 
Rep.  Fish.  557,  iv   -f   59  pp. 
FUJINO,  KAZUO. 

1967.  Review  of  subpopulation  studies  on  skipjack  tuna.  Proc.  47 
Annu.  Conf.  West.  Ass.  State  Game  Fish  Comm.,  Honolulu, 
Hawaii,  July  16-29,  1967,  pp.  349-371. 

In  press.  Skipjack  tuna  subpopulation  identified  by  genetic 
characteristics  in  the  western  Pacific.  [Abstract.]  In  John 
C.  Marr  (editor),  Kuroshio  Symposium:  Report  of  the 
Symposium  on  the  Cooperative  Study  of  the  Kuroshio  and 
Adjacent  Regions  (CSK).  FAO. 
FUJINO,  KAZUO,  and  TAGAY  KANG. 

1968.  Serum  esterase  groups  of  Pacific  and  Atlantic  tunas. 
Copeia  1968:  56-63. 

1968.  Transferrin  groups  of  tunas.    Genetics  59:   79-91. 
FUJINO,  KAZUO,  and  THOMAS  K.  KAZAMA. 

1968.  The  Y  system  of  skipjack  tuna  blood  groups.  Vox  Sang. 
14:  383-395. 


•Report3   listed  here  published  durine  this  reporting  period  or  were  in   press  in 
June   1968. 


36 


GOODING,  REGINALD   M.,  and  JOHN  J.  MAGNUSON. 

1967.  Ecological  significance  of  a  drifting  object  to  pelagic 
fishes.  Pac.  Sci.  21:   486-497. 

HIDA,  T[HOMAS]  S. 

1968.  The  Hawaiian  training  program  for  Trust  Territory  fisher- 
men. Proc.  Indo-Pac.  Fish.  Counc,  12  Sess.,  See.  3:  224-226. 

1968.  Training  program  for  skipjack  tuna  fishermen  in  Hawaii. 
Proc.  Indo-Pac.  Fish.  Counc,  12  Sess.,  Sec.  3:   264-274. 

In  press.  The  distribution  and  biology  of  polynemids  caught  by 
bottom  trawling  in  Indian  seas  by  the  R/V  Anton  Bruun, 
1963.    J.   Mar.  Biol.   Ass.  India. 
HIGGINS,  B[RUCE]   E. 

1967.  The  distribution  of  juveniles  of  four  species  of  tunas  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean.    Proc.  Indo-Pac.  Fish  Counc,  12  Sess., 
Sec  2:  79-99. 
IVERSEN,  ROBERT  T.   B. 

1967.  Response  of  yellowfin  tuna  (Thunnvs  atbacares)  to  under- 
water sound.  In  William  N.  Tavolga  (editor).  Marine 
Bio-Acoustics  2:  105-119;  Discussion  119-121.  Pergamon 
Press,  Oxford  and  New  York. 

In  press.  Auditory  thresholds  of  the  scombrid  fish  Euthyimus 
af finis,  with  comments  on  the  use  of  sound  in  tuna  fishing. 
FAO  Conference  on  Fish  Behaviour  in  Relation  to  Fishing 
Techniques  and  Tactics,  Bergen,  Norway,  19-27  October 
1967. 
JONES,  EVERET  C. 

1966.  Evidence  of  isolation  between  populations  of  Candacia 
pachydactyla  (Dana)  (Copepoda:  Calanoida)  in  the  Atlan- 
tic and  the  Indo-Pacific  Ocean.  Proceedings  of  the  Sym- 
posium on  Crustacea,  January  12-15,  1965,  Pt.  1:  406-410. 
Marine  Biological  Association  of  India,  Mandapam  Camp, 
India,   Symposium  Ser.  2.    [Received   in   1968.] 

1966.  The  general  distribution  of  species  of  the  calanoid  copepod 
family  Candaciidae  in  the  Indian  Ocean  with  new  records. 
Proceedings  of  the  Symposium  on  Crustacea,  January  12- 
15,  1965,  Pt.  1:  399-405.  Marine  Biological  Association  of 
India,  Mandapam  Oamp,  India,  Symposium  Ser.  2.  [Re- 
ceived in  1968.] 

In    press.  Lepas    anserifera.    Linne    (Cirripedia    Lepadomorpha) 
feeding  on  fish  and  Physalia.    Crustaceana. 
JONES,  EVERET  C,  and  TAI  SOO  PARK. 

1967.  A  new  species  of  Calanopia  (Copepoda:  Calanoida)  from 
neritic  waters  of  French  Oceania,  central  Pacific.  Crus- 
taceana 12:  243-248. 


1968.  A  new  species  of  Tortanus   (Calanoida)   from  Pago  Pago 
Harbor,  American  Samoa.    Crustaceana,  Suppl.  1,  Studies 
on  Copeoda,  pp.  152-158. 
JONES,  EVERET  C,  BRIAN  J.   ROTHSCHILD,  and   RICHARD   S. 
SHOMURA. 

1968.  Additional    records   of   the   pedunculate   barnacle,   Concho- 
derma  virgatum    (Spengler),   on  fishes.    Crustaceana   14: 
194-196. 
KIKAWA,  S[HOJI],  and  M[ARIA]  G.  FERRARO. 

1967.  Maturation  and  spawning  of  tunas  in  the  Indian  Ocean. 
Proc.  Indo-Pac.  Fish.  Counc,  12  Sess.,  Sec.  2:  65-78. 
MAGNUSON,  JOHN  J. 

1967.  Recent  developments  in  fishery  science  in  Japan  and  Asia. 
[Abstract.]  Proc.  Hawaiian  Acad.  Sci.,  42  Annu.  Meet., 
1966-1967,  p.  13. 
In  press.  Swimming  activity  of  the  scombrid  fish  Euthynnus 
affinis  as  related  to  search  for  food.  FAO  Conference 
on  Fish  Behaviour  in  Relation  to  Fishing  Techniques  and 
Tactics,  Bergen,  Norway,  19-27  October  1967. 
MANAR,  THOMAS  A. 

1967.   Progress  in  1965-66  at  the  Bureau  of  Commercial  Fisheries 
Biological   Laboratory,    Honolulu.    U.  S.    Fish    Wildl.    Serv., 
Circ.  274,  51  pp. 
In   prcs.s.   Hawaii:   research  uncovers  n  new  re.source.    In  Sidney 
Shapiro   (editor),  Our  Changing  Fisheries,  BCF  Resources 
Series,  vol.   1,   Washington,  D.C. 
In  press.   Hawaiian  fisheries.   In  F.  E.  Firth   (editor).  Encyclope- 
dia of  Marine  Resources,  Van  Nostrand  Reinhold  Company, 
New   York. 
Ill    jiress.     Pacific   fisheries,   tropical   and   subtropical.     In    F.   E. 
Firth     (editor).    Encyclopedia    of    Marine    Resources,    Van 
Nostrand   Reinhold   Company,   New   York. 
MARK.  J[OHN]  C. 

r.Mw.  Oceanographic  program  of  the  Bureau  of  Commercial  Fish- 
eries in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Proceedings  of  the  1967  Pacific 
Command  Oceanographic  Conference,  3,  4,  and  5  October 
1967,  Camp  H.  M.  Smith,  Hawaii  A.2,  9  pp. 
1967.  Research  programme  of  the  U.S.  Bureau  of  Commercial 
Fisheries  Biological  Laboratory,  Honolulu,  Hawaii.  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Symposium  on  Scombroid  Fishes,  January 
12-15,  1962,  pt.  3:  1154-1157.  Marine  Biological  Associa- 
tion of  India,  Mandapam  Camp,  India,  Symposium  Ser.  1. 
In  press.    Kuroshio.    Science.    (Wash.). 


37 


MARR,  JOHN  C.    (editor). 

In    press.  Kuroshio   Symposium:    Report    of   the    Symposium   on 
the  Coopeiative   Study   of  the   Kuroshio  and   Adjacent   Re- 
gions   (CSK).   FAO. 
MATSUMOTO,  WALTER  M. 

1067.   Morphology   and   distribution    of   larval    wahoo   Acavthocy- 
bium  solatidri  (Cuvier)    in  the  central  Pacific  Ocean.    U.S. 
Fish   Wildl.   Scrv.,  Fish.  Bull.  66;   299-322. 
MATSUMOTO,  WALTER  M.,  and  TAGAY  RANG. 

1967.  The   first    record    of   black   skipjack,   Euthyniius    lineatiis, 
from   the   Hawaiian   Lslands.    Copeia    1967:    8.37-838. 
NAKAMURA,   EUGENE    L. 

1967.  Abundance  and  distribution  of  zooplankton  in  Hawaiian 
waters,  1955-56.  U.S.  Fish  Wildl.  Serv.,  Spec.  Sci.  Rep. 
Fish.  544,  vi   +   37  pp. 

1968.  Visual  acuity  of  two  tunas,  Katsiiwonits  pelai.ds  and 
EuthyniiKx    affhiis.     Copeia    1968:    41-49. 

In  press.  A  review  of  field  observations  on  tuna  behavior.  FAO 
Conference  on  Fish  Behaviour  in  Relation  to  Fishing 
Techniques  and  Tactics,  Bergen,  Norway,  19-27  October 
1967. 

In  press.  Synopsis  of  biological  data  on  Hawaiian  species  of 
Stoleiihiiriis.  [Abstract.]  //(  John  C.  Marr (editor),  Kuro- 
shio Symposium:  Report  of  the  Symposium  on  the  Coop- 
erative Study  of  the  Kuroshio  and  Adjacent  Regions 
(CSK).    FAO. 

In  press.  Visual  acuity  of  yellowfin  tuna,ThuJinus  alhacares. 
FAO  Conference  on  Fish  Behaviour  in  Relation  to  Fishing 
Techniques  and  Tactics,  Bergen,  Norway,  19-27  October 
1967. 

NAKAMURA,  EUGENE  L.,  and  WALTER  M.  MATSUMOTO. 

1967.  Distribution  of  larval  tunas  in  Marquesan  waters.  U.S. 
Fish  Wildl,  Serv.,  Fish.  Bull. 66:   1-12. 

NISHIMURA,   H[AZEL]    S. 

1968.  Current  American  literature  in  the  marine  sciences.  Proc. 
Indo-Pac.   Fish.   Counc,  12   Sess.,  Sec.   3:   520-550. 

OTSU,  TAMIO. 

In  press.  Tagging  of  skipjack  tuna  (Katsiavonus  pelamis)  in 
Palau.  [Abstract.]  In  John  C.  Marr  (editor),  Kuroshio 
Symposium:  Report  of  the  Symposium  on  the  Cooperative 
Study  of  the  Kuroshio  and  Adjacent  Regions  (CSK).  FAO. 


OTSU,  TAMIO,  and  RAY  F.  SUMIDA. 

In  press.  Distribution,  apparent  abundance,  and  size  composition 
of  albacore  (Thunnus  alahmga)  taken  in  the  longline  fish- 
ery based  in   American  .Samoa,   1954-65.    U.S.  Fish  Wildl. 
Serv.,   Fish.   Bull.   67:   47-69. 
OTSU,  T[AMrO],  and  H[OWARD]   0.  YOSHIDA. 

1967.  Distribution  and  migration  of  albacore  (TltKniiim  alaliiiign) 
in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Proc.  Indo-Pac.  Fish.  Counc,  12 
Sess.,  Sec.  2:  49-64. 
In  press.  Faiga  Faiva  o  Samoa:  fisheries  of  Samoa.  In  Sidney 
Shapiro  (editor).  Our  Changing  Fisheries,  BCF  Resources 
Series,  vol.  1,  Washington,  D.C. 
PARK,  TAX  SOO. 

In    press.  Calanoid    copepods    from    the    central    North    Pacific 
Ocean.    U.S.   Fish  Wildl.  Serv.,  Fish.   Bull. 
ROTHSCHILD,  BRIAN  J. 

1967.  Competition  for  gear  in  a  multiple-species  fishery.  J.  Cons. 
31:    102-110. 

1967.  Estimates  of  the  growth  of  skipjack  tuna  (Katsiiwunus 
pelamis)  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  Proc.  Indo-Pac.  Fish. 
Counc,  12  Sess.,  Sec.  2:  100-111. 

1968.  On  assessing  the  relation  between  changes  in  fish  abun- 
dance and  the  oceanic  environment.  Advances  in  Fisheries 
Oceanography  2:  19-20.  (The  Japanese  Society  of  Fisheries 
Oceanography.    Tokyo,  Japan,  March  1968.) 

In  press.     The  fisherj'  resources  of  the  Trust  Territory.     In  Sid- 
ney  Shapiro    (editor).  Our   Changing   Fisheries,   BCF  Re- 
.sourccs  Series,  vol.  1,  Washington,  D.C. 
ROTHSCHILD  BRIAN  J.,  and  RICHARD  N.  UCHIDA. 

In  press.   The  pelagic  fishery  resources  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

Conference   on   the    Future   of   the    U.S.   Fishing   Industry, 
Seattle,   March  24-27,   1968. 
SAKUDA,  HENRY  M. 

In    press.      A    rapid    method   of   tagging   fish.     U.S.    Fish    Wildl. 
Serv.,  Fish.  Bull. 
SECKEL,   GUNTER   R. 

1968.   A  time-sequence  oceanographic  investigation   in  the   North 
Pacific   trade-wind   zone.    Trans.,   Amer.   Geophys.     Union 
49:    377-387. 
SHOMURA,    R[ICHARD]    S. 

1967.  Pelagic  fishes  caught  on  R/V  Anton  Bruiin  cruises  2  and 
5  (International  Indian  Ocean  Expedition).  Proc.  Indo- 
Pac.   Fish.  Counc,   12  Sess.,  Sec.  2:   26-48. 


38 


SHOMURA,  R[ICHARD]  S.,  D[EB]  MENASVETA,  A[KIRA]  SU- 
DA,  and  F[RANK]  TALBOT. 

I'JtJV.  The  present  status  of  fisheries  and   assessment  of  potential 
resources  of  the   Indian  Ocean  and  adjacent  seas.    Report 
of  the  IPFC  Group  of  Experts  on  the  Indian  Ocean,  Rome, 
23-25  January  19G7.    FAO  Fish.  Rep.  54,  32  pp. 
SPRAGUE,  LUCIAN  M. 

1967.   Multiple  molecular  forms  of  serum  esterase  in  three  tuna 
species  from  the  Pacific  Ocean.    Hereditas  57:    198-204. 
STRASBURG,  DONALD  W. 

1967.  Observations  on  the  biology  of  the  lousefish,  Phlhcirkhthys 
lineatus    (Menzies).   Pae.   Sci.  21:   260-265. 

STRASBURG,  DONALD   W.,   EVERET   C.  JONES,  and   ROBERT 
T.   B.   IVERSEN. 

1968.  Use  of  a  small  submarine  for  biological  and  occanographic 
research.  J.  Cons.  31:  410-426. 

UCHIDA,  RICHARD   N. 

1967.  Catch  and  estimates  of  fishing  effort  and  apparent  abun- 
dance in  the  fishery  for  skipjack  tuna  (Katsuwonus  petam- 
is)  in  Hawaiian  waters,  1952-62.  U.  S.  Fish  Wildl.  Serv., 
Fish.  Bull.  66:    181-194. 


In    press.  The   skipjack   tuna  fishery   in   Palau.    [Abstract.]    In 

John   C.   Marr    (editor),  Kuroshio   Symposium:   Report  of 

the  Symposium  on  the  Cooperative  Study  of  the   Kuroshio 

and  Adjacent  Regions  (CSK).    FAO. 
YOSHIDA,  HOWARD  0. 

1067.  Longine  fishing  for  deep-swimming  tunas  in  the  Marquesas 

Islands  and  adjacent  areas.    U.  S.  Fish  Wildl.  Serv.,  Spec. 

Sci.  Rep.   Fish.  546,  iv   +    10  pp. 
YUEN,  H[EENY]   S.  H. 

1967.  A  continuous-transmission,  frequency-  modulated  sonar  for 

the   study  of  pelagic  fish.     Proc.   Indo-Pac.   Fish.   Counc, 

12  Sess.,  Sec.  2:   258-270. 
In   press.     Response  of  skipjack  tuna   (Katsuwonus   pelamis)   to 

experimental    changes    in    pole-and-line   fishing   operations. 

FAO  Conference  on  Fish  Behaviour  in  Relation  to  Fishing 

Techniques    and    Tactics,    Bergen,    Norway,    19-27    October 

1967. 


TRANSLATIONS 


KURODA,  N. 

19C5.  Additions  and  corrections  to  the  list  of  fishes  of   Suruga 
Bay   XVIII.    Zool.   Mag.   74:   88-90.    [Translation  from  Ja- 
panese.] 
MIHO   SHIPBUILDING  COMPANY. 

1966.  The  live-bait  tanks  on  skipjack  vessels.    J.   Fish  Boat  Ass. 
Japan  144:   168-171.   [Translation  from  Japanese.] 


TOHOKU  REGIONAL  FISHERIES  RESEARCH  LABORATORY, 
n.d.  Atlas  of  skipjack  tuna  fishing  grounds  in  southern  waters, 
1964  and   1965.   [Translation  from  Japanese.] 
ZHAROV,  V.  L. 

1967.  Classification  of  the  scombroid  fishes  (Suborder  Scom- 
broidei,  order  Perciformes).  Vop  Ikhtiol.  7:  209-224. 
[Translation  from   Russian.] 


'unpublished. 


MS   #1905 


39 


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