RANDALL: SURVEY OF CIGUATERA AT MARSHALL ISLANDS 



a whitetip reef shark 465 mm PCL, taken from the 

 stomach of a 1,422 mm moray. Octopus and spiny 

 lobster were also eaten. 



This is the largest species of moray in the Indo- 

 Pacific region. Schultz ( 1949) attributed an attack 

 on the late Vernon E. Brock at Johnston Island by 

 a moray of about 10 ft (3,048 mm) in length to be 

 Enchelynassa canina. Following a later interview 

 with Brock, Randall (1969) reported that the eel 

 was actually L. javanicus and the length 7-8 ft 

 (2,134-2,438 mm). Stephens (1963) noted that the 

 largest moray measured at Johnston during his 

 stay at the island to be 7 ft 10 in (2,388 mm). The 

 author tended to disbelieve occasional reports by 

 divers of individual L. javanicus of 10-12 ft (3,048- 

 3,658 mm) until he observed one of an estimated 

 3,000 mm long off Mafia Island, Tanzania, which 

 was flushed from a cave with rotenone (the eel 

 recovered from the affect of the rotenone and re- 

 turned to its cave). 



The stomach contents of 1 1 specimens 417-1 ,905 

 mm TL (the largest weighed 24.5 kg) were 

 examined during the present study. Six of these 

 eels were from Enewetak, the rest from Oeno, Pit- 

 cairn, Johnston, and Truk. Four had empty 

 stomachs. The smallest contained a crab chela. 

 The others had eaten fishes (two contained Scarus 



sp., one Diodon sp., and another Thalassoma pur- 

 pureum). The stomach of a 1,540 mm, 13 kg speci- 

 men was distended with Kyphosus cinerascens, 

 Acanthurus nigricauda (identified as A. nigricans 

 by Schultz and Woods in Schultz and collaborators 

 1953, and as A. gahhm by Randall 1956), and A. 

 nigroris, all of which totalled 1.5 kg. These fishes 

 must be discounted as normal prey, however, as 

 they were undoubtedly eaten as a result of a 

 dynamite station at the Enewetak garbage pier. 

 The eel was collected with a powerhead blast im- 

 mediately after the dynamite explosion when it 

 was discovered within the area in which many 

 other fishes had just been killed. 



Hoiocentridae (Squirrelfishes) 



Adioryx spinifer (Forsskal) (Figure 10): The 

 largest of the squirrelfishes, this species exceeds 

 300 mm SL. It has a deep body, the depth about 

 2.5-2.7 in SL, projecting lower jaw, 40-44 lateral 

 line scales, and a well-developed venomous spine 

 at the corner of the preopercle. The color is red and 

 silvery with a deep red spot behind the eye and 

 another on the pectoral axil; the fins are yellow 

 except the spinous dorsal which is deep red. De- 

 scribed from the Red Sea, the species has since 



Figure lO. — Adioryx spinifer, 260 mm SL, Enewetak, Marshall Islands. 



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