near Samoa takes about 28 days, while reaching the Eastern Pacific east of Tahiti requires roughly 40 days. A shift system is typically adopted during this transit time. “For instance, if I have a full crew of 15 members, about 7 or 8 will rest while the other 7 or 8 are on duty in shifts. Each person might take a 1- or 2-hour shift. If there are 12 people available for a 24hour rotation, each person will work 2-hour shifts. Those on duty will stay in the captain’s quarters, monitoring for any passing vessels.” Work hours are arranged according to the fishing schedule during fishing operations. In the Western and Central Pacific or the Eastern Pacific, where species like albacore tuna (tombo ahi) are targeted, most of the fishing involves setting hooks in the morning and retrieving them in the evening or at night. “Hooks are set at sunrise, around 5 a.m., and the process takes approximately 8 hours; the fishers usually finish around noon or 1 p.m. After setting the hooks, there’s typically a 3- to 4-hour rest period. Retrieval begins in the evening, which can take 10 to 13 hours,” explained Chen. Chen also stressed that punch cards are the most accurate way to track work hours on fishing vessels. “Our crew members are now accustomed to using punch card machines. When they wake up and start work, they punch in; they punch out when they finish. It’s very convenient and just like on land. Plus, these records are signed and stamped by the crew themselves.” Regulations stipulate that vessels in the Western and Central Pacific must dock every 8 months and every 10 months in the Eastern Pacific. After docking at foreign ports to offload fish, captains typically allow crew members to take a few days of rest onshore rather than immediately resupplying and heading back to sea. The mainline length is typically 150 to 200 nautical miles for CT3 and CT4 tuna longline fishing vessels. The captain sets the hooks in a zigzag pattern instead of a straight line. Typically, the captain starts by setting 1,000 hooks to test where the fish are, then sets an additional 2,000 to 3,000 hooks in areas with better catch potential. Setting 2,000 to 3,000 hooks takes around 4 to 5 hours, while retrieving the line takes approximately 7 48