FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 85, NO. 1 



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FlGURE 10.— Index of Relative Importance of prey found in 

 stomachs of 24 California scorpionfish, captured in the South- 

 ern California Bight. 



Turner et al. (1969) examined diets of California 

 scorpionfish living on southern California artificial 

 reefs. They found the species fed almost exclusive- 

 ly upon juvenile Cancer crabs during fall and winter; 

 at other times scorpionfish ate octopus and fish. This 

 is similar to our findings, in which juvenile Cancer 

 anthonyi were the most important prey. Thus, 

 though the habitat we examined was different from 

 that surveyed by Turner et al., California scorpion- 

 fish may sometimes seek out juvenile Cancer crabs, 

 regardless of whatever other potential prey are 

 available. When juvenile crabs are not present, 

 California scorpionfish prey on other forms, in- 

 cluding octopus and fish. 



Limbaugh (1955), Quast (1968c), and Hobson et 

 al. (1981), surveying California scorpionfish over 

 natural rocky reefs, have all reported roughly 

 equivalent food habits, with demersal crustaceans 

 (particularly crabs and shrimps) of most importance, 

 followed by fishes, octopi, and squids. Hobson et al. 

 speculated the species captured most prey at night. 



Fishery 



Within the Southern California Bight, the Califor- 

 nia scorpionfish is a relatively minor constituent of 

 the partyboat sportfish catch (Table 7). The species 

 ranked 15th in abundance, comprising about 1.5% 

 of all fishes taken. As scorpionfish were less abun- 

 dant in the northern part of the Bight, we deleted 



data from sites north of Pt. Mugu (shown in Figure 

 1). When species were reranked, scorpionfish moved 

 up to 12th most abundant, forming 1.8% of the 

 catch. Throughout the Bight, over the years 

 1975-78, the annual contribution of scorpionfish to 

 the total partyboat catch, was fairly constant, hover- 

 ing at about 1.5% (Fig. 11). Most of the scorpion- 

 fish taken aboard partyboats were mature (Fig. 12). 

 The importance of scorpionfish to the total party- 

 boat fishery varied with season (Fig. 11). During the 

 nearly 4 years of the creel census, scorpionfish con- 

 tributed most heavily to the catch (as much as 3.0%) 



Table 7.— The twenty most commonly taken spe- 

 cies aboard commercial passenger vessels in the 

 Southern California Bight, April 1975-December 

 1978. A. Rankings for entire Bight, total number 

 of fish sampled = 342,052. B. Southern Califor- 

 nia Bight from Pt. Mugu south, total number of fish 

 sampled = 278,664. 



110 



