Lau's observations on relative abundance of P. 

 phrictus indicate that this species may constitute 

 a significant portion of the demersal fish biomass 

 in the area of the Bering Sea where he sampled. 

 During a sampling period from 12 to 31 July, 76 

 hauls were taken, of which 38 were subsampled. 

 Psychrolutes phrictus was present in subsamples 

 from 9 of these 38 hauls and ranked 6 of 44 species 

 found, based on weight. When individuals were 

 present in subsamples of the catch, they rep- 

 resented 0.3-8.2% of the subsample weight (Table 

 1) and 1.8% ofthe overall subsample weight for the 

 sampling period. Individuals were also observed 

 casually in hauls where they were not part of the 

 subsample. 



The capture of two juveniles off the Oregon coast 

 about 2,500 m above the bottom and about 65 km 

 west ofthe lower continental slope is evidence that 

 the larvae and juveniles are pelagic. Whether 

 juveniles normally occur so far offshore, and if so, 

 whether such individuals survive to reach the bot- 

 tom, is not known. Psychrolutes phrictus probably 

 leaves the pelagic zone and becomes demersal at 

 about 30 mm. The rationale for this is that the 

 juveniles (28 and 30 mm) reported here were 

 pelagic, whereas those (30 and 49 mm) reported by 

 Stein and Bond (1978) were benthic. 



Literature Cited 



HUBBS, C. L., AND K. F. LAGLER. 



1964. Fishes of the Great Lakes Region. Revised 

 ed. Univ. Mich. Press, Ann Arbor, Mich., 213 p. 

 Pearcy, W. G., E. E. Krygier, R. Mesecar, and F. Ramsey. 



1977. Vertical distribution and migration of oceanic mi- 

 cronekton off Oregon. Deep-Sea Res. 24:223-245. 



Stein, D. L., and C. E. Bond. 



1978. A new deep-sea fish from the eastern North Pacific, 

 Psychrolutes phrictus (Pisces: Cottidae [Psychro- 

 lutinae]). Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Ang. Cty., Contrib. Sci. 

 296, 9 p. 



ANN C. MATARESE 



Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 

 2725 Montlake Boulevard East 

 Seattle, WA 98112 



School of Oceanography 

 Oregon State University 

 Corvallis, OR 97331 



David L. Stein 



A RECURRENT MASS STRANDING OF 



THE FALSE KILLER WHALE, 



PSEUDORCA CRASSIDENS, IN FLORIDA 



The false killer whale, Pseudorca crassidens, is 

 one of the several species of odontocetes known 

 primarily through its relatively frequent mass 

 strandings. These strandings offer a large amount 

 of natural history data but, in most cases, inves- 

 tigators have been unable, for various reasons, to 

 thoroughly study these events. As a result, very 

 few data are available on the natural history of 

 P. crassidens (Mitchell 1975a, b; Purves and Pil- 

 leri 1978). Pseudorca crassidens is distributed 

 worldwide in temperate and tropical waters 

 (Mitchell 1975b), and frequently strands in large 

 numbers (Norman and Fraser 1948; Dudok van 

 Heel 1962), exceeding 800 in one case (Marelli 

 1953; Tomilin 1957; Reiger 1975). The series ofP. 

 crassidens mass strandings we describe herein is 

 the third in Florida in recent years. Caldwell et al. 

 (1970) reported a stranding of 150-175 false killer 

 whales near Ft. Pierce on the Atlantic coast of 

 Florida in January 1970. Little data was collected 

 and most ofthe animals were apparently buried on 

 the beach. A heretofore unreported stranding oc- 

 curred on 18-19 July 1972 on the northeast end of 

 Sawyer Key (lat. 24°45.6' N, long. 81°33.4' W) in 

 the lower Florida Keys on the Florida Bay (Gulf of 

 Mexico) side. This site is approximately 35 km 

 northeast of Key West (Figure 1). Nineteen ani- 

 mals were involved. Gordon Hubbell^ estimated 

 the largest animals to be 460 cm (15 ft) long. He 

 measured a 320 cm ( 10.5 ft) male, a 376 cm (10.3 ft) 

 female, and a 427 cm (14.0 ft) female. 



Sequence of Events 



1. The Florida Marine PatroP reported a whale 

 stranding near North Captiva Island on the 

 southwest coast of Florida (Figure 1) on the morn- 

 ing of 22 July 1976. We found a dead 440 cm 

 female false killer whale at Redfish Pass (Figure 

 2) and four live females aground on a sandbar in 

 Pine Island Sound (Figure 2). We necropsied the 

 dead animal on the beach and transported the live 

 animals to Sea World, Orlando, Fla., on 22 July. 

 At least 29 false killer whales had entered Pine 

 Island Sound: 1 died; 4 were stranded alive; 24 



^Gordon Hubbell, Director, Crandon Park Zoo, Miami, Fla. 

 33149, pers. commun. 1977. 



^Florida Marine Patrol, Officer in Charge, Ft. Myers Office, 

 pers. commtm. July 1976. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 78, NO. 1. 1980. 



171 



