Chapter I Intro & Objectives - SPREP

PHOENIX ISLANDS PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN
Chapter III. Background, 5. Fisheries Resources
Draft 1 March 2007
Reintjes and King (1953) conducted research in the Line and Phoenix Islands on yellowfin
tuna. Of 1,097 stomachs examined, 996 were not empty and contained a total of 189,000
prey items representing 99 taxa.
Murphy and Ikehara (1955) reported on tuna school observations in relationship with bird
schools in the Pacific Islands. Results from the Phoenix Islands are provided in Table III-5.2
below.
Table III-5.2. Summary of Phoenix Islands observations
on fish schools and bird flocks.
(source; Murphy and Ikehara 1955).
March
to May
June to
August
September
to November
December
to
February
2
Totals and
unweighted
average
Days fishing & scouting - 3 0 3 6
Days running 3 4 2 14 23
Yellowfin schools 0 8 3 3 14
Yellowfin schools per day 0.0 1.1 1.5 0.2 0.7
Skipjack schools 0 6 2 1 9
Skipjack schools per day 0.0 0.9 1.0 0.1 0.5
Unidentified schools 2 5 2 5 14
Unidentified schools per day 0.7 0.7 1.0 0.3 0.7
Total fish schools 2 19 7 9 37
Total fish schools per day 0.7 2.7 3.5 0.5 1.9
Bird flocks 6 26 1 13 46
Bird flocks per day 2.0 3.7 0.5 0.8 1.8
Murphy and Ikehara (1955) reported that in the Phoenix Islands, yellowfin dominated near
land and skipjack dominated the semi-oceanic zone. They also conducted troll test fishing
around the Phoenix Islands. Detailed results were included in Murphy and Ikehara (1955).
Van Pel (1956) conducted longline fishing trials in American Samoa for the South Pacific
Commission. During these trials, 4 days were spent in the Phoenix Islands area (00 0 S,
170 0 W). Catch rates within the Phoenix Islands were 1.83 yellowfin tuna and 0.97 albacore
tuna per 100 hooks.
Ishiyama and Okada (1957) examined post-larval skipjack, Katsuwonus pelamis, from the
Phoenix Islands. The characteristics of these young (measuring between 5 to 8 mm) were
similar to skipjack post-larvae from the Philippines and elsewhere.
Between 1978 to 1979, the SPC’s Skipjack Survey and Assessment Programme conducted
one trip to the Phoenix Islands using the F/V Hatsutori Maru No. 3 (Chapman 2003).
In 1979, 183 kg of milkfish from the milkfish farm in Tarawa were taken to the Phoenix
Islands and used for tuna bait (Kleiber and Kearney 1983). About 150 kg bait survived the
trip and was used to catch .7 tonnes (0.8 tons) of skipjack (87%) and yellowfin tuna. CPUE
was 0.8 tonnes/day (0.9 tons/day). This low CPUE was not due to a lack of tuna, but because