Rambling Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
SAN DIEGO – As you tunafish eaters know, your delicacy is gone for the duration. Do you know exactly why?
Well, it’s partly because we aren’t trading with the Japanese right now (they used to catch lots of tuna on our side of the fence, and then sell it to us). And it’s further because the Navy has taken over a good part of our American tuna boat fleet.
Tuna fishing had grown into a whopper of an industry around San Diego. In fact, this is the only place in the United States where there was a tuna industry. In boats alone, the fishermen had an investment of $10,000,000.
The Navy already has taken more than half the total tonnage of the 110 boats in the tuna fleet. Those left are small ones which can’t go very far to sea.
So this year’s catch of tuna will be small, and every bit of it will go to the Army and Navy. It’s rather ironic – the government has contracts with the tuna canneries for a certain amount of tuna this year, but by taking away the boats they make it impossible for the canneries to fill the contracts. So, you see, there’ll be none left over for civilian palates.
The tuna-fishing industry is a relatively new one – about 15 years old on a big scale – and a thrilling one, too. Tomorrow I’ll tell you some weird fish stories.
From early in the century until 1925, the fishermen around here caught albacore, which is a very delicate-meated fish of the tuna variety. But the biggest yearly catch was around 10,000 tons, compared with the 1940 tuna catch of 104,000 tons.
Albacore go south – for keeps
Each year the albacore, after disappearing to the south, would show up in these local waters at a certain time. They were as regular as the seasons; as faithful in their rendezvous as the swallows of San Juan Capistrano.
And then, in 1926, they didn’t come. And they’ve never been back since. It threw the fishermen for a loop that year. But they recovered quickly. They decided to go south, farther away, after tuna, which are bigger than albacore.
Then began an era of building bigger and bigger boats. Today there are tuna clippers that cost $250,000 and can cruise for 15,000 miles. They go as far south as Peru, and fish 1000 miles from shore. Sometimes they are gone three months, and return with 400 tons of tuna.
Tuna clippers go to sea on the “share” system – each member of the crew gets a percentage of the value of the whole catch. The biggest of the boats carry 22 men, and can bring in as much as $64,000 worth of tuna on one trip.
They say tuna fishermen are the highest-paid seamen in the world – $3000 a year is not unusual for just an ordinary pole man. Engineers make as high as $8000 and $10,000 a year.
There are about 1200 actual tuna fishermen, and most of them are Portuguese – 90 per cent of them, in fact. Eight per cent are Italian, and 2 per cent plain American. So fruitful is the tuna game that some of them have fished themselves into quarter-million-dollar boats and $50,000 homes here in San Diego.
Tuna helps himself into boat
Tuna are all caught individually, on hand lines, and it takes experience to make a tuna fisherman. Because you fish by rhythm, and your nerves and eyesight must be above par.
The tuna fisherman must yank his pole just a split second before the onrushing tuna actually strikes the hook. Then the tuna’s own momentum carries him on up out of the water and over the rail into the boat! Otherwise, it would be hard to get them aboard.
Some of these fishermen actually seem to have “fish sense.” They tell of one captain who will stand on his bridge for hours, looking out over empty water. Nobody else can see a thing, but finally the captain will say, “They’re over there,” and sure enough they always are.
When the Navy took over the tuna clippers many of the fishermen enlisted and went right along with the boats. And I’ve heard one report from a naval officer that, as lookouts, these fishermen made the regular Navy men appear silly. They could see things with the naked eye long before an officer could see them with binoculars. And, oddly enough, they’ve found that the best-seeing tuna fishermen are color blind.
Japan has been extremely active in tuna fishing on this side of the Pacific. For years she had the tuna concession from Mexico, and was in complete charge of the waters around Lower California. That, of course, has been canceled now.
Also, there were many Japanese fishing out of San Diego. In our trusting way, we paid little attention to them. They had years in which to study and map every foot of our coasts.
The tuna fishermen say if they’re ever hailed by a Jap submarine it won’t surprise them to see one of their old San Diego fishing companions stick his head out the conning tower.
We, the women –
Uncle Sam is using good psychology
By Ruth Millett
Mrs. America was thinking recently how tough sugar rationing was going to be on her and the family – liking pie and cake as much as they do. And thinking of not having a car and that walking to the market, to bridge club and to the beauty salon wasn’t going to be much fun. Then she picked up her newspaper and read an item that gave her quite a jolt.
American women – the article said – could best be described as “dumpy.” And the authority for the article wasn’t some woman-hating feminine detractor.
It seems that recent research done by the Bureau of Home Economics in Washington showed that the average American woman over 18 years of age is 5’3” and weighs 133.5 lbs. Her bust measurements are 35.62, waist 29.15 and hips (shame on her) are 38.62.
Compare that with the measurements of the slim young things we want to look like and often kid ourselves we do – and you see why Mrs. America got such a rude shock. For the woman who looks the way we think a woman ought to look today is a streamlined 5’6”, weighs only 122 lbs., has a 34-inch bust, a 25-inch waist and (what’s a girdle shortage to her?) is only 35 inches around the hips.
No wonder Mrs. America put down her paper, and got out her tape measure to read on it some discouraging figures.
So she could best be described as dumpy, could she? Well, she would see about that.
And right away she had something more to worry about than a possible sugar shortage and the fact that she would have to start walking whether she wanted to or not. There must be some pretty good psychologists in the government’s Bureau of Home Economics.