HIDA: FOOD OF TUNAS AND DOLPHINS 



Persian Gulf, Comoro Islands, east coast of Afri- 

 ca, Formosa, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, 

 Palau, southern India, and Singapore. He stated 

 that they were very common in Hong Kong, 

 Japan, and Hawaii. 



Additional notes on the distribution of S. buc- 

 caneeri are given below; occurrences discussed 

 are shown in Figure 1. 



S. huccaneeri was first noticed on cruise 116 

 in the stomach contents of 4- to 12-kg bigeye 

 tuna that were caught from a "boiling" school 

 (see Scott, 1969) at lat 4°N and long 119°W. 

 It was found again the next day in the stomach 

 contents of skipjack tuna caught at lat 5°N on 

 long 119°W, about 700 miles from Clipperton 

 Island, the closest land. This occurrence is of 

 interest because this species previously had been 

 recorded only near land masses. 



On cruise 117, S. huccaneeri was observed to 

 be a common organism eaten by skipjack and yel- 

 lowfin tunas, kawakawa, and dolphin caught 

 around the Samoa Islands. Although it was very 

 often eaten by tunas close to shore, it was neither 

 seen nor caught while baiting in the inshore 

 areas. Similarly, Robert E. K. D. Lee (pers. 

 comm.) has found it eaten by yellowfin tuna and 

 kawakawa caught near shore in the Fiji area 

 but has not observed it during baiting operations 

 in inshore waters. 



In May of 1971 on cruise 53 of the Toivnsend 

 Crormvell, S. huccaneeri juveniles were collected 

 under a night light while the vessel was anchored 

 in a depth of 25 m on Condor Reef in the Caroline 

 Islands. 



An estimated 20 kg of S. huccaneeri were 

 caught in a close-to-surface haul made with a 

 modified Cobb pelagic trawl (see Higgins, 1970 

 for a description of this trawl) 160 miles east 

 of Agrihan Island in the Mariana Islands on 

 cruise 55 of the Cromwell in November 1971. 

 It was present in five other trawl hauls, in the 

 stomach contents of a wahoo, Acanthocyhium 

 solandri, caught northwest of Ponape, and in 

 several skipjack tuna caught by trolling north 

 of Namorik during the same cruise. 



John Naughton, National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, Honolulu, informed me that several 

 schools of yellowfin and skipjack tunas fished 

 by the Hawaiian fishing vessel Anela around 



Majuro and Arno Atolls in April 1972 were feed- 

 ing on schools of an anchovy resembling S. huc- 

 caneeri. 



Wilson' cited that two Palauans trolling be- 

 tween Angaur and Peleliu Islands observed and 

 sampled a school of kawakawa feeding on S. 

 huccaneeri. 



The occurrence of S. hiiccaneeri as discussed 

 here in the equatorial eastern Pacific, Samoa 

 Islands, Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands, Palau 

 Islands, Marshall Islands, and Fiji in conjunc- 

 tion with previous records shows it to be a wide- 

 spread Indo-Pacific (including eastern Pacific) 

 species. Because it occurs in great abundance 

 locally, such as at Fiji and the Samoa Islands, 

 it is to be expected that details of its occurrence 

 will be more likely noted. 



SIZE 



Most of the anchovies found in the stomach 

 contents were in poor condition. The caudal 

 fin and snout of many specimens were so badly 

 digested that their standard lengths could only 

 be estimated. The S. huccaneeri found in the 

 bigeye tuna stomachs ranged from 30 to 57 mm 

 in standard length (SL). Those found eaten 

 by the skipjack tuna ranged from 20 to 58 mm. 

 Those caught on cruise 117 of the Charles H. 

 Gilhert near Samoa ranged from 23 to 78 mm. 

 The samples from Condor Reef measured 15 to 

 30 mm while those from the trawl hauls caught 

 close to the Mariana Islands ranged from 14 

 to 70 mm. The small postlarvae were semi- 

 transparent when alive and turned whitish when 

 preserved in Formalin. They were identified 

 by their exposed urohyal plate and posterior ex- 

 tent of their maxilla. 



The presence of large numbers of postlarvae 

 more than 100 miles from land, and adults as 

 far as 700 miles from land, strongly suggests 

 that this species is capable of completing its life 

 cvcle in an oceanic environment. 



^ Wilson P. T. Observations of various tuna bait 

 species and their habitats in the Palau Islands. Un- 

 published manuscript. Marine Resources Division, Trust 

 Territory of the Pacific Islands, Saipan, Marianas 96950. 



139 



