HUBBS and WISNER REVISION OF THE SAURIES 



common within the ECC. The southernmost 

 known occurrence of C. saira is some hundreds of 

 miles to the north. 



Cololahis saira apparently does not occur south 

 of about 20° N (Figure 15), based on our data and 

 those of Parin (1960). North of this latitude it 

 ranges throughout the North Pacific to the Aleu- 

 tian chain, but apparently not into the eastern and 

 central Bering Sea. In the far western area it oc- 

 curs in the eastern portion of the Yellow Sea. the 

 entire Sea of Japan to well along Sakhalin, into 

 the southern Okhotsk Sea, and northerly along 

 the Bering Sea coast of Kamchatka to Olyutorsky 

 Bay, at about 60= N (Farm 1968a, b) (Figure 17). 

 Along the North American coast C. saira is very 

 common from Alaska to at least central Califor- 

 nia, but only sporadically so to about the Cedros 

 Island region of Baja California, Mexico; it is rela- 

 tively uncommon south of that region, particu- 

 larly adults, but young and juveniles have been 

 taken at about 19° N in the eastern Pacific. 



Cololabis saira juveniles (8-30 mm) were re- 

 ported from 180 mi east of Port Macquarie (New 

 South Wales, Australia) by Fourmanoir (1971); 

 however, we have examined these small fishes and 

 determined them to be S. s. scombroides. One ap- 

 parently valid capture of C. saira near New Guin- 

 ea (kindly communicated to us by N. V. Parin, 14 

 September 1978) was reported by Kailola (1974): 

 ". . . one specimen. East of Kavieng [New Ireland! 

 (2°34' S, 150°49' E) Dipnetted by night light, 

 1967. — 205 mm SL." The count of dorsal and anal 

 finlets (5 each) indicates the specimen is a scom- 

 beresocid, and certain proportions listed can per- 

 tain only to Cololabis: "Eye 5, 1.8 in snout. Snout 

 2.7 in head." falling far outside the range for 

 Scomheresox of similar size. The stated size, 205 

 mm, is far too large (or Elassichthys. This locality 

 (Figure 15, large hexagon) is about 1,800 miles 

 south of any other known occurrence of C. saira in 

 the western Pacific. Parin believes, andwe concur, 

 that this specimen was very probably lost from a 

 Japanese longline vessel; Fourmanoir and La- 

 boute (1976) describe the use of frozen sauries 

 (C. saira) as bait by longliners operating in the 

 area. 



Intriguing questions arise concerning this ap- 

 parently valid capture in the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere. We assume that the specimen was alive ( at 

 least it was not stated otherwise). Kailola ( 1974) 

 postulated that "abnormal extensions of cold cur- 

 rents south of the Equator may thus account for 

 the southern record of the species." An alternative 



explanation is that the specimen was transported 

 alive from northern waters in a bait tank aboard a 

 vessel. However, C. saira does not keep well in 

 live-bait tanks; they are "wild" and dash them- 

 selves to death against the walls, particularly of 

 small tanks. And, to our knowledge, there are no 

 recorded instances of a Japanese longline vessel 

 carrying large live-bait tanks. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Our efforts have been aided by many persons — 

 so many that no doubt we will fail to list at least a 

 few; in that event we hereby express our great 

 appreciation for any effort made to further our 

 work. We are deeply indebted to our Russian col- 

 league Nikolai Parin for deferring to us the nam- 

 ing of his "Scombercsux sp" and for persuading his 

 fellow- workers also to refrain; also, we are indebt- 

 ed to him for providing many unpublished capture 

 localities for all four species of the family. Our 

 Japanese colleagues, Shoji Ueyanagi, Shigeru 

 Odate. Keiichiro Mori, Hiroshi Hiyama, and To- 

 kiharu Abe, have provided information on dis- 

 tribution of Cololabis saira: Ueyanagi, in addi- 

 tion, provided much information on Scomberesox, 

 Nanichthys. and Elassichthys. We are very grate- 

 ful to Philip Sloan, formerly a student at Scripps 

 Institution of Oceanography, for his efforts on the 

 Scripps expedition LUSIAD in gathering the nuc- 

 leus of the material on which we base the new 

 genus and species, Nanichthys sinnilans. 



Specimens and information have been provided 

 by Bruce B. Collette and Robert H. Gibbs, Jr. 

 lUSNM), G. Palmer (BMNH), Enrico Tortonese 

 (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Genoa), W. 

 Ladiges (ZSZM), P. Fourmanoir (New Caledonia), 

 Frank Talbot ( AMS), Frederick H. Berry (TABL), 

 Myvanwy Dick (MCZ). E. Bertelsen and J0rgen 

 Nielsen (ZMUC), and Marie-Louise Bauchot 

 (Pans). Leslie W. Knapp (SOSC) and Leonard P. 

 Schultz ( USNM) have kindly provided much study 

 material. We are grateful to Camm C. Swift 

 (LACM) and Peter U. Rodda (CAS) for the loan of 

 fossils that have been referred to the Scom- 

 beresocidae. 



Bruce B. Collette critically reviewed the man- 

 uscript and offered valuable suggestions. Eliza- 

 beth N. Shor typed the final manuscript and 

 otherwise provided assistance. To all these per- 

 sons (and those we have forgotten) we offer our 

 very great appreciation and deep thanks. 



559 



