SURVEY OF PELAGIC FISHES OF THE CALIFORNIA CURRENT AREA 



By Frederick H. Berry,* Research Systematic Zoologist, and Herbert C. Perkins,** Fishery Technician, Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries California Current Resources Laboratory, La Jolla, Calif. 



ABSTRACT 



The pelagic fishes off central California to central 

 Baja California were surveyed with four kinds of nekton- 

 collecting nets. Construction and operation of one of 

 these nets, the collapsible midwater beam trawl, are 

 described. The survey was made during eight cruises 

 between May 1961 and March 1963. More than 189 

 fish species and about 52,000 specimens were taken. 



The number and size range of specimens at each station 

 of capture are listed for all the species; charts of the 

 location of capture are given for most species; and 

 several species are illustrated. The records for many 

 of the species are annotated with remarks and data on 

 taxonomy, range, ecology, and ontogeny. 



A survey of the nekton off central California to 

 central Baja California was begun in January 

 1962 by the Life History and Taxonomy Program 

 of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, California 

 Current Resources Laboratory, La Jolla, Calif. 

 The purpose of this survey was twofold : to begin 

 to learn what larger pelagic organisms (primarily 

 fishes) occur in the area sampled and to investi- 

 gate certain aspects of the life history of the hake 

 (Merlucciii.s), a species of potential commercial 

 importance. This report presents a list of the 

 more than 189 species of fishes taken on the sur- 

 vey, with annotations on life history, distribution, 

 and taxonomy for many of the species. A subse- 

 quent report will give data obtained on the hake 

 other than records of occurrence. The inverte- 

 brates collected were placed in the Marine Inverte- 

 brate Collection of Scripps Institution of Oceanog- 

 raphy. 



Since development of the Isaacs-Kidd midwater 

 trawl (IKMWT) in 1950, a large number of tows 

 have been made in the Pacific with this type of 



Note : — Approved for publication July 12, 1965. 



•Present address: Tropical Atlantic Biological Laboratory, 

 Miami, Fla. 



••Present address : Biological Laboratory, Boothbay Harbor, 

 Maine. 



net (Aron, 1960; King and Iversen, 1962; Clarke, 

 1963). Specimens collected with the IKMWT 

 have been deposited in various museums, but only 

 the collections made by Aron (1960) have been 

 reported comprehensively. Wisner (1962) gave a 

 list of species and numbers of each taken in 14 

 IKMWT tows during Operation "Wigwam" off 

 Baja California. 



In addition to the 10-ft. IKMWT, this survey 

 used a 10- by 14-ft. collapsible midwater beam 

 trawl (CMWBT), to be described in a later sec- 

 tion, a 5- by 5-ft. nekton net (Blackburn, 1960: 

 53-55), and the large Cobb Mark-II pelagic trawl 

 of about 70- by 80-ft. mouth opening (McNeely, 

 1963). 



After examining the catches made by the var- 

 ious nets, it seems obvious that none of the nets 

 used is adequate by itself to sample the nekton of 

 the bathypelagic area and that a variety of nets 

 should be used in future surveys. The Cobb trawl, 

 because of its large size, is more efficient than other 

 nets used in catching the larger and more elusive 

 organisms. Direct comparisons of the catching ef- 

 ficiencies of these nets are not made in this re- 

 port, because of the many variables that entered 

 into the survey. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOLUME 65, NO. 3 



625 



