460 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



In a food study of 321 albacore troll-caught off 

 California and Baja California, McHugh (1952) 

 reported each of these 11 food items occurring in 

 more than 10 percent of the stomachs : squid, saury 

 {Cololabis salra), euphausiids, amphipods, the 

 decapod crustacean Pleuroncodes planlpes, para- 

 lepidids, rockfish {Sehastodes sp.), the gonostoma- 

 tid Vincigiierria Jucetia, hake {Merhtcchis pro- 

 dii,ctu.s), myctophids, and the anchovy Engraulis 

 mordax viordax. The bulk of the food, however, 

 was composed of saury (50 percent), squid (12 

 percent), and P. planipes (11 percent). Yabuta 

 (1953) found baiTacuda, the trunkfish Ostracion 

 diaphanus {=Lactoria dlaphanu.s) , and a species 

 of "sand borer' in the food of albacore from seas 

 adjacent to the Bonin Islands. He states, however, 

 that "their feed are mostly Crustacea and vei-y 

 small cephalopoda; therefore it is considered to 

 have strong characteristics of a plankton feeder." 



Koga (1958a, 1958b) described the food of alba- 

 core from the western Indian Ocean and the 

 equatorial South Pacific. Twelve fish families 

 occurred in the stomach contents of the western 

 Indian Ocean albacore, with Plagyodontidae 

 {=AIepisauridae), Triacanthidae, Carangidae, 

 and Acinaceidae { = GempyUdae) found in 10 per- 

 cent or more of the stomachs. Among the Crusta- 

 cea, isopods, decapods, and stomatopods occurred 

 in 10 percent or more of the stomachs. Squid 

 occurred in 67 percent. Koga also found 12 fish 

 families represented in the food of equatorial 

 South Pacific albacore, with the following present 

 in the food by 10 percent or more : Plagyodontidae, 

 Triacanthidae, Acinaceidae, Ostraciidae, and 

 Menidae. Decapod crustaceans occurred in 15 per- 

 cent, squid in 50 percent, and octopods in 10 per- 

 cent of the fish. 



In the eastern North Atlantic albacore food was 

 studied by CoUett (1896), who reported finding 

 these nine categories of fish in albacore taken in 

 the Gulf of Gascony: horse mackerel [Trachurus 

 tradmnis), boarfish {Capros aper), barracudina 

 {Paralepis pseiidocoregonoides), lancet fish 

 {Plagyodus sp.), Scomheresox saurus (the Atlan- 

 tic counterpart of the Pacific saury), hatchet fish 

 {Stemoptyx diaphana) , gonostomatids {Mmiroli- 

 cus sp.), and pipefish {Syngnathus aequoreux). 

 Joubin and Roule (1918) found S. savrm, the 

 amphipod Eiithemkto hlspinosa, and Paralepis sp. 

 to be the most important items of the diet of alba- 

 core caught off the coasts of Brittany, but also 

 found the hatchet fish, Argyropelecus olfersi, a 



hoplophorid crustacean of the genus Acanfhe- 

 phyra, the euphausiid M eganyctlphanes norvegica, 

 the amphipod Phronima sedentaria, and the squid 

 GonatiiJj fairicii. They correlated good catches 

 of albacore with many E. hlspinosa and (S'. sawns 

 recovered from the stomachs. Le Danois (1921, 

 1922) related the feeding of albacore with the 

 presence of the amphipod E. hispinosa in waters 

 whose temperature, at a depth of 50 m., was not less 

 than 14° C. He also found juvenile anchovy 

 (Engravlus encrassicholus) , horse mackerel {T. 

 trachurus), saui-y (S. saurus), smelt {Argentina 

 sp.), and lantern fish {Myctophmn sp.) in alba- 

 core stomachs. 



Legendre (1932, 1934, 1940) and Bouxin and 

 Legendre (1936) have published the most detailed 

 reports dealing with the food of albacore from the 

 eastern North Atlantic. Legendre (1940), for 

 example, summarizes the food of albacore from 

 1929 to 1933 in a list comprising 106 species from 

 five phyla. The ten most important food items 

 reported by Legendre were similar to the most im- 

 portant food items of albacore captured off Cali- 

 fornia and Baja California (McHugh, 1952). Le 

 Gall (1949) has reviewed the albacore food studies 

 by French workers and noted the differences in 

 stomach contents of fish taken over a period of 

 almost 30 years. 



SOURCE OF MATERIALS 



A total of .544 albacore stomachs were examined. 

 They were collected on 24 cruises of the Hugh M. 

 Smith, Cliarles H. Gilbert, and John R. Manning, 

 during the years 1950-57. The data for the 24 

 cruises are summarized in table 1 and the overall 

 collection area is shown in figure 1. Stomachs 

 were taken from albacore captured by longlining, 

 trolling, and gill net fishing. Murphy and 

 Shomura (1953) have discussed the method of 

 long-line fishing used on these cruises, and con- 

 struction details of the gear have been described 

 by Mann (1955). Trolling procedures have been 

 decribed by Shomura and Otsu (1956) and 

 Graham (1957, 1959), and the use of gill nets and 

 construction details were reported by Graham and 

 Mann (19.59). 



These three different fishing techniques did not 

 sample the same sizes of albacore, as the smaller 

 (^85 cm.) fish were taken primarily by trolling 

 and gill netting at the surface and the larger 

 (>85 cm.) albacore were caught by the deeper 



