FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 82, NO. 4 



TABLE 25. — Summary of morphometric data of Scom- 

 beromorus queenslandicus. FL = fork length, HL = 

 head length. 



intense white between sixth and last spines. 

 Second dorsal fin, finlets, and caudal fin pearly 

 grey with darker margins. Pelvic fins, anal fin, 

 and anal finlets white. Pectoral fins greyish, 

 darkest on inner surface. Munro also noted the 

 absence of characteristic blotches in a 95 mm 

 juvenile. 



Munro (1943:pl. 7, 8) provided excellent illustra- 

 tions of adult (545 mm FL) and juvenile (140 mm 

 FL) specimens from Queensland. There is also a 

 figure drawn by George Coates in Grant (1982 and 

 previous editions). A photograph of two juveniles 

 (about 300 mm FL) was included in Lewis (1981: 

 15). A color photograph of a 230 mm specimen was 

 added to the fifth edition of Grant (1982:pl. 324). 



Biology. — Schools move into bays and estuaries 

 and inshore coastal waters the length of the entire 

 coast of Queensland during midwinter and early 

 spring in the Southern Hemisphere (Grant 1982). 

 A female 450 mm FL with mature ovaries was 

 collected in Moreton Bay, Queensland, in January 

 1980 (Lewis, footnote 5). Information on eggs 

 (Richards and Klawe 1972) and on spawning and 

 food habits is lacking. Larvae (3.5-9.5 mm SL) 



were described and illustrated by Jenkins et al. 



(1984). 



Interest to fisheries. — Caught by recreational and 

 commercial line-fishermen trolling with lures and 

 spoons, and using cut baits along the coast of 

 Queensland (Grant 1982). They also form the basis 

 of a substantial net fishery, using set nets by day 

 or night. Considerable quantities of juveniles are 

 trawled in parts of Moreton Bay during autumn 

 (March-May). Together with Grammatorcynus 

 and three other species of Scomberomorus , mack- 

 erel fishery is Queensland's second major finfish- 

 ery with an annual output of about 1,000 tons of 

 whole and filleted fish (Anonymous 1978). It was 

 known to south Queensland fishermen as school 

 mackerel for over 60 yr prior to its formal descrip- 

 tion by Munro (1943). Trawled in the Gulf of 

 Papua. 



Distribution. — Confined to inshore coastal waters 

 of southern Papua New Guinea and the northern 

 three quarters of Australia (Fig. 55). The western- 

 most records are from Shark Bay (Munro 1943) 

 and Onslow (AMS IB.1576, WAM P. 8669-8678), 

 Western Australia. The range extends south to 

 Port Jackson (USNM 4795, AMS 1.15026) and 

 Botany Bay (USNM 47948) in the Sydney area. A 

 tentative record from Fiji (Collette and Russo 

 1979) was based on small specimens of S. commer- 

 son (USNM 227183, 203-242 mm FL) with less dip 

 in the lateral line than is usual in the species. The 

 origin of a specimen of S. queenslandicus (USNM 

 213539, 215 mm FL) that was purchased in the 

 Anbon market in the Moluccas is unknown but 

 joint venture trawlers which fish in the Arafua 

 Sea unload at Anbon (Lewis footnote 5). 



Geographic variation. — Comparisons were made 

 of morphometric characters of three small samples 

 of S. queenslandicus by ANCOVA: Western Aus- 

 tralia (n = 5-9), eastern Australia (n = 9-13), and 

 southern New Guinea (n = 3-5). Null hypotheses 

 that the 3 sets of regression lines are coincident 

 were accepted for 24 sets of regressions and 

 rejected for 2 sets: orbit (fleshy) and orbit (bony). 

 In both cases, the Western Australian population 

 was significantly different by the Newman-Keuls 

 Multiple Range Test from the population in east- 

 ern Australia (intercepts 5.140, 2.847, Q = 5.630** 

 for fleshy orbit; intercepts 8.380, 1.951, Q = 

 4.562** for bony orbit) and the population in 

 eastern Australia was not significantly different 

 from that in New Guinea. No significant meristic 



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