FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69, NO. 4 



Figure 1. — Crater wounds on a large dolphin from the 

 central Pacific. 



authority on them. I believe, however, that 

 Pike (1951) unknowingly but accurately de- 

 scribed the differences between lamprey bites 

 and Isistius bites on whales when he wrote: 

 "The lampreys seem to leave two distinct types 

 of wounds .... The first consists of a circular 

 area in which the epidermis is completely abrad- 

 ed by the teeth of the sucking disc. In the center 

 of this is a hole through the skin caused by the 

 rasping tongue. In the other type the lamprey 

 apparently rasps away the skin over the entire 

 area with the result that there is a circular sore 

 right down to the blubber and no jieriphery of 

 skin which has been damaged but not eaten 

 away." The second type and some of the wounds 

 and scars illustrated by Pike are, I believe, at- 

 tributable to Isistius bites. 



Crater wounds have been reported in the lit- 

 erature cited on skipjack tuna; yellowfin tuna. 









Figure 2. — A crater wound on the side of a swordfish 

 caught in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo by Martin 

 Bartlett.) 



Thunytn^ alba^'ares (Bonnaterre) ; dolphin, Cor- 

 yphaena hippunis Linnaeus; opah, Lampris re- 

 gius (Bonnaterre); and swordfish, A'/p/i/«s g/«- 

 diiis (Linnaeus) (Figure 2). In addition to 

 these, I have seen crater wounds on albacore, 

 Thunnus alalunga (Bonnaterre), and wahoo, 

 Acanthocyhinm solandri (Cuvier) , in the central 

 Pacific. Biologists and fishermen in Hawaii have 

 reported to me having seen them on kawakawa, 

 Enfhyruius affinis (Cantor) ; large jacks, Car- 

 anx sp.; rainbow runners, Elagatis sp.; and 

 various species of marlins, Istiophoridae. 



The cetaceans upon which crater wounds, 

 crescentic wounds, or resultant scars have been 

 reported were listed by van Utrecht (1959). In- 

 cluded were beaked whales, sperm whales, var- 

 ious species of porpoises, and nearly all of the 

 baleen whales (order Mysticeti) except the right 

 whales (family Balenidae) which apparently do 

 not migrate out of cold polar waters. In Ha- 

 waiian waters, wounds and scars (Figure 3) 

 are commonly seen on porpoises of the genera 

 Tursiops and StcneUa, and have been observed 

 on a beaked whale, Ziphias sp., stranded on 

 Oahu. 



Dr. Donald W. Strasburg, during discussions 

 several years ago, i)lanted the idea that Isistiiis 

 might be the cause of crater wounds on fishes. 

 He had found (Strasburg, 1963) that the man- 



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