SPEARFISHES OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC 



529 



south of Korea, in the Celebes Sea, and at times 

 in tlie South China Sea. Atulax is regularly 

 taken but not abundantly in the winter albacore 

 fishery east of Japan from about 28° to 35° N. 

 latitude. It is scarce along the Pacific Equator 

 near the Carolines and the Marshall Islands 

 where the Japanese mothership expeditions took 

 audax at an average rate of less than .01 per 100 

 hooks (Van Campen 1952). It is a little more 

 abundant to the east of 150° W. longitude where 

 POFI catches averaged as high as .30 per 100 

 hooks (fig. 26). 



The relation of the marlins to the ocean currents 

 was discussed by Nakamura (1954a). He noted 

 that in the principal marlin grounds in the western 

 Pacific between 14° and 30° N. latitude, most of 

 the audax are caught north of the region of sub- 

 tropical convergence, whereas to the south ampla 

 predominates. There is not, however, a complete 

 separation of the species. 



Off Hawaii, audax is the most abundant marlin. 

 Otsu (1954) showed that the average monthly 

 landings for the years 1948 to 1952 contained 

 more audax from December through June and 

 more ampla from July through November. The 

 average annual landings by weight of audax were 

 a little less than ampla, but audax averaged only 

 about 70 pounds compared with 200 to 300 for 

 ampla (tables 5 and 6), so the numbers of audax 

 landed were much the greater. 

 Food 



In the other species of marlins, the scattered 

 observations suggest that they are broadly car- 

 nivorous, but in audax the specific food studies 

 show it clearly. Morrow (1952b) examined 53 

 stomachs taken off New Zealand and found the 

 principal food items to be Scomheresox and Arripis. 

 Hubbs and Wisner (1953), who examined 32 

 stomachs from marlin caught near San Diego, 

 Calif., in 1951, found the principal food items to 



Figure 26. — Distribution of POFI catches of striped marlin, Makaira audax. Fractions indicate stations at which 

 catches were reported out of the total fished; decimals indicate average catch per 100 hooks per day. 



