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Louis Barr 

 James R. Knull 



National Marine Fisheries Service 

 Alike Bay Fisheries Laboratory 

 Alike Bay, AK 99821 



TARACTES RUBESCENS AND 



TARACTICHTHYS STEINDACHNERI 



FROM HAWAIIAN WATERS 



The various species of the family Bramidae are 

 mostly high-seas fishes with the possible excep- 

 tion of Eumegistus. Although capture records 

 of adult Taractes r'^ubesceiis (Jordan and Ever- 

 mann, 1887) and Taractichthys stei)idachneri 

 (Doderlein, 1883) are few, Mead (1972) surmises 

 that they are probably widespread in the tropical 

 oceanic Pacific. Most of the documented ac- 

 counts of the occurrence of these two species 

 in the Pacific Ocean are of juvenile stages taken 

 from stomachs of large predators. In the Pacific, 

 Taractes rubescens has been recorded from a 

 few widely separated localities between lat. 

 05M8'N and 02°26'S and long. 88°46' and 

 155 °W. All except one of the documented cap- 

 tures are of juveniles smaller than 120 mm. 

 The only adult specimen was taken by a Japan- 

 ese longliner at lat. 05°48'N, long. 126°00'W. 

 Taractichthys steindachneri is also known 

 mostly from juveniles. They have been captured 



at widely separated localities between lat. 40° 

 48'N and 04°46'S and long. 165°35'W and 98° 

 28'E. Although adult specimens of this species 

 are also taken incidentally by Japanese long- 

 liners, documented capture localities are avail- 

 able in the Pacific for only four specimens. This 

 note records the capture of the adults of 10 

 Taractes rubescens and 2 Taractichthys stein- 

 dachneri from Hawaii and also provides some 

 observations on the ecology of the two species. 



Within the area around the Hawaiian Islands 

 bounded by lat. 10°-30°N and long. 150°-170°W, 

 Taractes riibescois was previously known from 

 one juvenile measuring 27.5 mm in standard 

 length (SL) and Taractichthys steindachneri 

 was known from three juveniles measuring 17.0, 

 42.5, and 130.0 mm SL (Mead, 1972). The latter 

 species was also known from an adult specimen 

 {Taractes longipi)niis = Taractichthys stei))- 

 dach)ieri) "about 2 feet long" (Gosline and 

 Brock, 1960). However, T. steindachneri is prob- 

 ably more common than indicated: Mead (1972) 

 cites a personal communication from W. A. 

 Gosline (December 1963) in which it is indi- 

 cated that fishermen in Hawaii are familiar 

 with this species. The 12 bramids reported here 

 were captured on longline gear at nine fishing 

 stations during cruise 101 of the NOAA vessel 

 Charles H. Gilbert between 17 May and 6 June 

 1967 (Table 1). The fishing stations were from 

 14 to 30 km off the coast of Waianae, Oahu, 

 over depths of 1,800-3,000 m. The surface water 

 temperature ranged from 25.5° to 27.4°C and 

 the salinity from 34.5 %o to 34.9%o at the fish- 

 ing stations. Other fishes caught together with 

 the bramids, in order of abundance, were Alepi- 

 saurus sp., Prionace glauca, Thumius obesus, 

 TetraptuTus audax, Xiphias gladius, Alopias 

 sp., Genipylus serpens, Katsuivonus pelamis, 

 Acanthocybium sola)idri, TliioDins albacares, 

 Tetraptnrus angustirostris, and Isurus sp. 



Three of the Taractes rubescois and both of 

 the Taractichthys steindachneri were frozen 

 after capture. Approximately 5 yr later, body 

 measurements and counts on two Taractes 

 rubescens and two Taractichthys steindach)ieri 

 were made in the laboratory after the specimens 

 thawed out (Table 2). The five preserved speci- 

 mens are presently in the Southwest Fisheries 

 Center, Honolulu Laboratory's fish collection. 



900 



