CalCOFI Reports, Vol. 11, 1967 - California Cooperative Oceanic ...

114 CALIFORNIA COOPERATIVE OCEANIC FISHERIES INVESTIGATIONSmost commonly either visually or with f athometers,the most successful method is to attract the baitschools at night with lights. This latter method,developed in the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harborarea, employs a small skiff with a gasoline-poweredgenerator which supplies 500- to 1000-watt lights. Thelight both attracts and holds bait schools so that theycan be netted.After being caught, the bait is either sold directlyfrom the bag of the net or transferred to one of thevarious holding facilities for sale later.Live Bait CatchIn 1935, California initiated a program of personalinterviews with live-bait fishermen to obtain informationabout the extent of the fishery. Since 1939, theDepartment has collected fishing logs. The presentversion of the logs is combined with personal interviewsand sampling to determine the amount of fishsold as live bait, the species composition of the catchlocalities of catch, and fishing effort. Catches arerecorded by the fishermen in ‘(scoops7’ which areconverted into pounds by Department personnel.Live-bait catches have fluctuated between 4,000 and7,000 tons annually since 1950 (Table 4). In recentyears, sales have been estimated at about 1.5 milliondollars per year.POPULATIONAge ComfiositionThe Department routinely sampled the commercialanchovy catch from 1952 through 1957 and hassampled the live bait catch since 1955. Age compositionshave been determined cooperatively with theU.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. The commercialanchovy season extends from April 1 throughMarch 31.In central California, particularly, the age compositionof the catch has been somewhat variable. From1952-53 through 1953-54, ages 11, 111, and IVpredominated the landings. Beginning in 1954-55,following increased anchovy fishing, the 1954 yearclassbegan to dominate the landings. In 1954-55,80.4 percent was fish-of-the-year ; in 1955-56, 79.0percent was 1954 year-class fish as 1-year-olds andin 1956-57, this time as 2-year-olds, the 1954 yearclasscontributed 73.8 percent of the catch. Fish upto 6 years old were sampled. The central Californiafishery seems to depend upon sporadic good yearclasses from a localized population. This agrees withthe report of Ahlstrom (1956) that good spawningsuccess is intermittent in the area north of PointConception.The commercial catch off southern California between1952 and 1957 was comprised chiefly of l- andANCHOVY LANDINGS FOR THE YEARS 1916-19641920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960FIGURE 2.California Commercial Anchovy landings, 1916-1964 (in tans).