a length of about 126 cm at 1 yr and about 112 cm 

 for females. The slower growth rate of C. hippurus 

 in the western North Atlantic Ocean may be the 

 result of a decrease in feeding rate when water 

 temperature goes below 23.0°C and a cessation of 

 feeding at 18.0°C (Hassler and Hogarth 1977). Cory- 

 phaena hippurus feed throughout the year in Hawaii 

 and can be expected to grow continuously. 



Wang (1979) used the monthly progression of 

 modes in length-frequency distributions to estimate 

 growth rates of about 10 cm/mo from February 

 through June for C. hippurus between 50 and 100 

 cm FL. This growth rate is similar to that found for 

 C. hippurus in Hawaiian waters. 



Growth rates of captive C. hippurus were similar 

 to those of wild fish in Hawaiian waters. Beardsley 

 (1967) reported rapid growth rates of three captive 

 C. hippurus. These fish grew from about 35 to 125 

 cm in 7 to 8 mo. 3 Soichi (1978) reported that 11 C. 

 hippurus 35-50 cm TL grew to a mean 123 cm TL 

 in 7-8 mo. Their observations also support our 

 estimates of rapid growth for C. hippurus around 

 Hawaii. 



Coryphaena equiselis appeared to grow as rapid- 

 ly as C. hippurus during the first 4 mo, then grew 

 at a slower rate (Fig. 5). At about 4 mo, C. equiselis 

 reached sexual maturity. Coryphaena hippurus also 

 reached sexual maturity at 4-5 mo, but have been 

 observed to mature as early as 3 mo in captivity. 



The daily regularity of increment formation has 

 been demonstrated from D-l to D-191 for C. hip- 

 purus and from D-l to D-63 for C. equiselis. So the 

 use of daily increment counts on the sagitta of wild 

 fish for estimating age has only been partially 

 validated for these dolphins. The age-length relation- 

 ships are valid for the first 6 mo for wild C. hippurus 

 and the first 2 mo for wild C. equiselis. Thus, the 

 von Bertalanffy growth curves calculated for wild 

 C. hippurus in Hawaiian waters should be viewed 

 with caution despite good agreement with several 

 other growth observations in the literature 



Acknowledgments 



Our thanks to Richard W. Brill, Richard E. Brock, 

 Leighton R. Taylor, and Jerry A. Wetherall for their 

 critical reviews of this manuscript. Carol Hopper 

 greatly assisted our sampling efforts for wild-caught 

 specimens and Thomas K. Kazama provided the 

 oldest known-age C. hippurus. 



3 A length-weight relationship (Gibbs and Collette 1959) was used 

 to estimate lengths in centimeters from weights, given in pounds, 

 by Beardsley (1967). 



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Pannella, G. 



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James H. Uchiyama 



Southwest Fisheries Center Honolulu Laboratory 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 

 P.O. Box, 3830, Honolulu, HI 96812 



Raymond K. Burch 

 Syd A. Kraul, Jr. 



Waikiki Aquarium, University of Hawaii 

 2777 Kalakaua Avenue 

 Honolulu, HI 96815 



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