SPEARFISHES OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC 



535 



off the Marshall Islands the principal fishery is from 

 8° to 12° N., and here the seasonal abundance 

 gradually increases until July, then slowly de- 

 clines. Off Formosa, Nakamura (1942) reported 

 that arnpla is plentiful on the Pacific side during 

 the summer, and he (1949) stated that they are 

 extremely rare in the Kuroshio Current region 

 from October to April. Off Hawaii, Otsu (1954) 

 showed that ampla reaches the peak of abundance 

 and is the principal spearfish in the catch from July 

 through November, whereas during the other 

 months of the year audai is the principal species 

 in terms of pounds landed. Thus, north of the 

 equatorial area the seasonal occurrence suggests a 

 summer movement of ampla northward followed 

 by a return south in the late autumn. 



Size 



The reports from the Japanese and Hawaiian fish- 

 eries indicate that ampla rivals and may even sur- 

 pass matiina in maximum size reached. Nakamura 



(1949) reported that ampla attains 1,100 pounds, 

 but a weight of 1,450 pounds has been recorded 

 from the Hawaiian fishery (table 6), and fishermen 

 recall weighing specimens of more than 1,600 

 pounds.'*' The POFI specimens include one of 

 1,002 pounds from Hawaii and another nearly as 

 large from the equatorial area, which was partly 

 eaten by sharks (Nos. 67 and 68 in appendix table 

 1-E, p. 548). 



As in marlina, the large ampla are alwaj'S 

 females. The largest male weighed by POFI was 

 218 pounds. Ueyanagi (1953) and Nakamura et 

 al. (1953) both reported that males do not exceed 

 200 cm. (orbit to fork), which is equivalent to 

 about 255 pounds. Yabuta (1954), in the atlas of 

 Japanese longline fishing, summarized data on size 

 composition by sex of ampla from several areas 

 and all length frequencies showed a mode at about 



'" ThP maximum sizes of ampla attained in the Pacific are much greater 

 than reported from the Atlantic where the angling record is 742 pounds 

 (official 1955 list of the International Game Fish Association). 



Table 6. — Weight frequency of blue marlin, Makaira ampla, from the Honolulu market, January 1949-Fehruary 1952 



[Data collected by the Hawaiian Division of Fish and Game] 



