Fijians Catch Their First

Tuna For New Co.

FIJIAN fishermen, trained by South Seas Marine Products Ltd., at the end of January, had their first ex perience of catching tuna in the manner developed by the American tuna industry.

For weeks the men have been learning in Suva how to make the lures and the fishing gear required, and they have prac tised hauling in bags of sand from the sea and swinging them on to the deck behind them in tuna-fishing faslron.

There is no barb on the heavy hooks em ployed, and fishing can be resumed as soon as the hook slips from the mouth of the tuna when it is safely on deck.

Although it is not the tuna fishing season in Fiji waters, the Fijian trainees were taken on a trial cruise on the vessel “Sea King.” Large quantities of fish to be used as bait were caught, but it was not until the vessel was on her way back to Suva that the fishermen had a chance to apply their newly-learned tuna-fishing skill.

When a shoal was sighted, bait was thrown overboard to attract the tuna, and the men lined up on the platform at the stern of the ship. When they began to hook the tuna there were some exciting minutes as fish began to fly through the air. Some landed on the deck immediately behind the fishermen, in the approved style, but many of the lighter tuna were flung by the excited fishermen on to the vessel’s super-structure.

The man who landed the first tuna was given a bonus of £1 by the managing director of the Company, Mr. Harold Gatty.

The live bait used to attract the tuna was netted at night, with the aid of powerful underwater lights, and kept alive, until needed, in tanks on board the vessel.

The tuna caught were placed in re frigerating tanks and preserved in filtered sea-water brought to just above freezing point and kept circulating about the fish.

Among the tuna caught were three varieties, the Skip-Jack, Yellow-fin and Dog Tooth. The largest of them weighed 98 pounds.

The manner in which cost of living has risen in the South Pacific is shown by the index figure for Nefa Caledonia.

Quoted in 1939 as 40 per cent., it is now

given as 421 per cent. In the same period the French Colony’s budget expenditure has risen from 44 million francs to 260 million.

Dr. J. W. Coulter, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cincin nati, United States of America, has joined the staff of the Trusteeship Division of the United Nations, as specialist in the Pacific islands and Pacific Asia. Dr. Coul ter visited Fiji in 1940-41, and later pub lished a study of the Colony under the title, “Fiji—Little India of the Pacific.”