American Angler in Australia (1937) Read Online Free PDF Page B

simply marveled at the trick I had played on the shark, and him, too.
    There was a merry splashing mOlTe at the gaffing of this hammerhead, i n which all the outfit engaged. It was the largest hammerhead I had seen i n Australian waters, probably close to six hundred pounds. Off the Perlo s Islands I have seen eighteen-foot hammerheads, with heads a third tha t wide. I understand the Great Barrier Reef has twenty-two-foo t hammerheads. Australia is verily the land, or water, for sharks; and I a m vastly curious to see what a big one will do to me. Mr. Bullen was fou r and a half hours on his nine hundred and eighty pound tiger shark, and I h ave heard of longer fights. No doubt I am due for a good licking, bu t that will be fun.
    We raised a Marlin presently, and I ran back to the cockpit to coax thi s fellow to bite; and we had an exciting half-hour photographing an d catching him--a good sized striped spearfish of two hundred and ninet y pounds.
    Not long after this event I sighted white splashes far to the southeast.
    I yelled to the boys, "Tuna splashes!"
    We ran on, and in due time I saw dark patches on the smooth surface, an d then schools of leaping bait fish, and then the gleaming flash of a leaping tuna in the air. He was big, too, easily one hundred and fift y pounds. Emil, who had seen this superb fish at Catalina, yelled hi s enthusiasm. There were scattered sharp splashes all over the sea. Thi s meant tuna were feeding.
    While Peter hooked up the engine and we bore down on these dark patches , I put on a tuna gig such as we use in the South Seas. Long before w e reached the agitated waters I had a fine strike. Tuna always hoo k themselves. This one ran down and down, and had run four hundred yards o f line off the reel before he slowed up.
    I stopped him right under the boat, and then had some strenuous wor k pumping and winding him up. It required more than half an hour, that is , counting his narrowing circles under the boat. The sun was directl y overhead, the sea perfectly calm, the water clear as crystal; and it wa s a striking picture to see that dazzling tuna as he came nearer and neare r to the boat.
    I hoped that he would weigh a hundred pounds and cautioned Peter to mak e sure at the gaff. When hauled aboard this fish presented a most beautifu l sight. He was a yellow-fin tuna, not to be confounded with the Australia n and Western Pacific tunny; and the opal and blue and gold colors , blending in a dazzling effect, as bright as sunlight on jewels, were s o lovely that it seemed a shame to kill their possessor.
    But this was a valuable catch, much more important than any size o r species of swordfish. I was simply delighted.
    In my correspondence for three years with Australian anglers and marke t fishermen I had been told of vast schools of large round blue fish tha t had been sighted offshore in July and August. These fish had bee n sighted, but not classified. I concluded they were tuna, and with thi s lucky catch I had verified my opinion.
    Yellow-fin tuna furnish California with one of its big commercia l assets--a fifty-million-dollar-a-year canned-tuna industry. There ar e floating canneries on the sea and canneries on shore. San Pedro, a thriving town, depends upon the tuna catch. For thirty years thi s business has been increasing. Large boats have been built, wit h refrigeration machinery and huge storage capacity, and these vessels pl y far in pursuit of the schools of tuna. In 1927, when I found yellow-fi n tuna at the Galapagos Islands, and showed motion pictures to verify it , the Japanese and American fleets were hot after these fresh schools. Fiv e hundred tons of tuna, at a hundred dollars a ton, meant big profit.
    Australian commercial interests have something to think about. It can b e depended upon--these yellow-fin tuna are more and more in demand. Japanes e ships now come clear to the Californian and Mexican coasts, and down of f South America. It will be a close run to Australian