Luthy et al : Identification of larval sailfish, white marlin, and blue marlin in the western North Atlantic Ocean 



599 



than traditional methods. The creation of a key based 

 on characters developed from molecularly identified At- 

 lantic larvae makes it possible to use more traditional 

 methods to make reliable identifications. Despite the 

 limitations of the key, it works well for larvae caught 

 in our area. We recommend further testing with istio- 

 phorid larvae from other waters, and the inclusion of 

 longbill spearfish larvae. 



Acknowledgments 



The authors appreciate financial support provided by 

 Network Miami and Anheuser Busch, the American 

 Institute of Marine Science, the Miami Billfish Tour- 

 nament's Captain H. Vernon Jr. Scholarship, the Inter- 

 national Light Tackle Tournament Association, and the 

 University of Miami's Center for Sustainable Fisheries. 

 We thank G. Diaz, K. Gracie, L. Leist, M. Williams, O. 

 Bowen, C. Schmitz, C. Faunce, D. Schuller, G. Meyers, 

 and M. Feeley for volunteering their time for specimen 

 collection and J. Post, T. Capo, J. Ault, S. Smith, and J. 

 Luo for early instruction. Laboratory advice and com- 

 miseration were provided by C. Campbell. P. Walsh, J. 

 van Wye, and all the members of the VIMS genetics 

 laboratory. We offer special thanks to J. Graves, in 

 whose laboratory the molecular work was carried out. 

 We are grateful to T Grothues for sharing his CVA 

 wisdom and to J. Llopiz, D. Richardson, and K. Denit for 

 testing our key. W. Richards, D. deSylva, and C. Paris 

 were instrumental in the interpretation of identification 

 characters. This work could not have been carried out 

 without the generosity and enthusiasm of D. Frazel and 

 his family in donating their time and the use of their 

 boat. Larvae were collected under NMFS permits HMS- 

 EFP-00 through 03, and under University of Miami 

 animal care protocols (02-063). 



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