Rivera and Appeldoorn; Age and growth of Coryphaena hippurus 



351 



Furthermore, the perceived movements of dolphin- 

 fish in the vicinity of Puerto Rico is complex. In 

 Puerto Rico, fish generally are caught in abundance 

 first on the north coast and then on the south coast. 

 Fish are caught in the Mona Passage on the west 

 side of Puerto Rico but not off the east coast over 

 the Puerto Rican-Virgin Islands shelf.' Off the U.S. 

 Virgin Islands there is a bimodal distribution of catch 

 over time similar to that for Puerto Rico. For recrea- 

 tional boats operating out of St. Croix, increases 

 in catch rates, particularly in the spring are first 

 observed to the southeast, then move progressively 

 closer to St. Croix and then St. Thomas-St. John.-^ 

 The implied direction of movement is from south- 

 east to northwest, opposite to that predicted by the 

 two-stock hypothesis. The temporal distribution of 

 dolphinfish along the southeast coast of the Domini- 

 can Republic is similar to that off the south coast 

 of Puerto Rico,'^ but in contrast, off the southwest 

 coast, dolphinfish catch rates show a single sharp 

 peak in the month of November.'* In agreement with 

 Mahon and Mahon (1987), the real stock structure 

 and migration pattern of dolphinfish are likely to be 

 more complicated than originally proposed, a point 

 well appreciated by Oxenford and Hunte ( 1986). 



Acknowledgments 



Data collection was aided by M. Figuerola, R.N. 

 Perez, and A.M. Roman of the Fisheries Research 

 Laboratory, Puerto Rico Department of Natural and 

 Environmental Resources, and by the Puerto Rico 

 sportfishing community. We thank H. Oxenford for 

 her help and willingness to verify otolith counts. D.A. 

 Hensley and V. Vicente gave valuable criticism. 



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