US FWS Charles H. Gilbert (FWS 1003) was an American fisheries science research vessel in commission from 1952 to 1970 in the fleet of the United States Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service and from 1970 to 1973 in the fleet of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration as NOAAS Charles H. Gilbert. She was among the first U.S. fisheries science vessels to explore the central Pacific Ocean in search of commercially valuable populations of fish. Originally designed for exploratory fishing using longline and live-bait techniques to determine the distribution of tuna in the central Pacific, her role evolved over the years as she underwent modifications to better support the research of fisheries scientists and marine biologists as their understanding of tuna biology increased, and by 1960 she had become a marine research station capable of longlining, trawling, transporting live bait, and gathering oceanographic data. In 1959, she became the only tuna-fishing vessel in the world outfitted with observation chambers incorporating underwater viewports, which gave embarked scientists an unprecedented ability to observe directly the behavior of tuna and bait fish in the water (rather than infer their behavior through statistical analysis ashore) and record the behavior for future study through the use of still photography and film. She also gathered meteorological data and even made gravimetric observations in support of geophysical analysis of the Earth. During a long and active career, Charles H. Gilbert ranged widely through the central, northern, and eastern Pacific to study the Pacific tuna fishery, transport live bait from other locales to Hawaii so that it could be introduced in Hawaiian waters, and make her oceanographic, meteorological, and geophysical observations. From her home port at Honolulu, Hawaii, her 130 cruises took her southeast to the Marquesas Islands, south to Tahiti, southwest to New Caledonia, well to the northwest and north in the North Pacific, northeast as far as Oregon, and east to the coast of Mexico. In a 1967 summary of her contribution to fisheries science on the occasion of her 100th cruise, the a U.S. Fish and Wildlife official offered the opinion that virtually everything known about the distribution and behavior or tuna at that time was thanks to her operations. After the conclusion of her United States Government service, the ship became a commercial fishing vessel, initially named MV Charles H. Gilbert and later MV Jade Alaska. She operated commercially until she sank in 2007.
Construction In August 1947, the United States Congress authorized a new "Pacific Ocean Fishery Program" calling for the "investigation, exploration, and development of the high seas fisheries of the Territories and Island Possessions [of the United States] and intervening areas in the tropical and subtropical Pacific Ocean." The United States Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service (which in 1956 would become the United States Fish and Wildlife Service) was responsible for carrying out the program, which was to be overseen by a new office, Pacific Ocean Fishery Investigations (POFI), under the direction of Oscar Elton Sette. In addition to the construction of the Pacific Ocean Fisheries Laboratory at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, and the development of a Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) docking and warehouse site at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the Congress funded the conversion or construction of three ocean-going vessels to support POFI's work. During 1949 and 1950, these three vessels joined the Fish and Wildlife Service fleet as US FWS Henry O'Malley, US FWS Hugh M. Smith, and US FWS John R. Manning. However, the FWS retired Henry O'Malley in early 1951 due to a need for cost-prohibitive repairs, reducing POFI's fleet to two vessels. Constructed for use by POFI, Charles H. Gilbert was a 90-or-92-foot (27 or 28 m) (sources give both lengths) steel-hulled research and experimental fishing vessel especially designed for use in investigating tuna fisheries in the mid-Pacific Ocean. She was outfitted for longline fishing, a method Japanese fishermen had used for tuna fishing for centuries and which the FWS hoped to adapt to Western mechanical fishing techniques, in contrast to the Japanese method of longlining by hand. The FWS accepted her at Tacoma, Washington, on 30 April 1952, returning POFI to its authorized strength of three research vessels, and assigned her the hull number FWS 1003.
Service history
1950s
1952 Upon acceptance by the FWS, Charles H. Gilbert proceeded immediately to San Diego, California. She departed San Diego on 20 May 1952 for her first FWS cruise, an experimental fishing cruise across the equator between 120 degrees and 130 degrees West longitude to test a hypothesis POFI scientists had developed from the study of oceanographic data that significant tuna stocks existed eastward from the Hawaiian Islands all the way to the coast of Central America. She first proceeded south along 120 degrees West longitude, longlining every 90 nautical miles (170 km; 100 mi) from a point 670 nautical miles (1,240 km; 770 mi) north of the equator to a point 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) south of it. She then moved to 130 degrees West longitude and fished northward, following the same procedure. She found good fishing north of the equator, catching tuna at twice the rate that commercial fisherman did when longlining around Hawaii, with yellowfin tuna predominating in the southern two-thirds of the zone and bigeye tuna in the northern third, and the FWS assessed that no vessel had ever caught yellowfin and bigeye tuna so far from shore before. Charles H. Gilbert′s exploration resulted in the discovery of a new Eastern Pacific tuna fishery, supporting the POFI hypothesis by demonstrating an abundance of tuna as far as 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) east of Hawaii and indicating a need for further investigation of areas to the east and west of where she fished. She concluded her cruise with her arrival for the first time at her home port at the POFI docking facility at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 19 June 1952, having made a maiden voyage of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) during the cruise.
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