is in spawning condition but, also, if it has recently 

 spawned (Hunter and Macewicz 1985). Ovaries from 

 our sample contained no mature oocytes and, in 

 addition, did not contain abundant atretic oocytes 

 indicative of the resorption process. Instead the 

 ovaries were in the regressed stage and contained 

 primary oocytes lining connective tissue septa. These 

 results indicate that the swordfish were reproduc- 

 tively inactive during the sampling period and for 

 at least a month or two before capture Although this 

 conclusion does not preclude the possibility of spawn- 

 ing early in the year, swordfish then are scarce Also 

 water temperatures favorable for spawning (Palko 

 et al. 1981) are not widespread in the summer and 

 autumn, and are virtually nonexistant the remainder 

 of the year. 



Acknowledgments 



The authors are indebted to the cooperating com- 

 mercial swordfish fishermen and the scientific 

 observers, particularly Dimitry Abramenkoff and 

 Lynn Shipley, who conducted field sampling. The 

 comments of Gary Sakagawa, Norm Bartoo, and 

 Pierre Kleiber were greatly appreciated. 



Literature Cited 



Hunter, J. R., and B. J. Macewicz. 



1985. Rates of atresia in the ovary of captive and wild north- 

 ern anchovy, Engraulis mordax. Fish. Bull., U.S. 83:119- 

 1. •',<',. 

 Kume, S., and J. Joseph. 



1969. Size composition and sexual maturity of billfish caught 

 by the Japanese longline fishery in the Pacific Ocean east 

 of 130 W. Bull. Far Seas Fish. Res. Lab. (Shimizu) 2:115- 

 162. 

 Palko, B. J., G. L. Beardsley, and W. J. Richards. 



1981. Synopsis of the biology of the swordfish, Xiphias 

 gladius Linnaeus. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Rep. 

 NMFS Circ. 441, 21 p. 



UCHIYAMA, J. H., AND R. S. SHOMURA. 



1974. Maturation and fecundity of swordfish, Xiphias gladius, 

 from Hawaiian waters. In R. S. Shomura and F. Williams 

 (editors), Proceedings of the International Billfish Sympo- 

 sium Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 9-12 August, 1972. Part 2. Review 

 and contributed papers, p. 142-148. U.S. Dep. Commer., 

 NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS SSRF 675. 



Earl C. Weber 



Southwest Fisheries Center La Jolla Laboratory 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 

 8604 La Jolla Shores Drive 

 La Jolla, CA 92038 



Stephen R. Goldberg 



Department of Biology 

 Whittier College 

 Whittier, CA 90608 



GROWTH OF DOLPHINS, CORYPHAENA 



HIPPURUS AND C. EQUISELIS, IN 



HAWAIIAN WATERS AS DETERMINED BY 



DAILY INCREMENTS ON OTOLITHS 



The dolphin, Coryphaena hippurus, and pompano 

 dolphin, C. equiselis, are widely distributed pelagic 

 fishes in tropical and subtropical oceans (Beardsley 

 1967; Rose and Hassler 1968; Shcherbachev 1973). 

 In Hawaiian waters C. hippurus is caught through- 

 out the year, but its abundance fluctuates. Small fish 

 (<2.3 kg) are plentiful in summer and large fish 

 (13.6-18.1 kg) are more abundant from February to 

 April (Squire and Smith 1977). Coryphaena hippurus 

 is important to the commercial and recreational fish- 

 eries; C. equiselis, a smaller fish with a maximum 

 length of 74 cm (Herald 1961), is occasionally caught 

 by recreational fishermen. Although much is known 

 about the life history of C. hippurus in the Atlantic 

 (Palko et al. 1982), the biology of the Hawaiian 

 population has been only sketchily investigated. Lit- 

 tle is known about C. equiselis. 



At least three age and growth studies on C. hippu- 

 rus have been reported. Annual marks on scales have 

 been used to age C. hippurus off Florida (Beards- 

 ley 1967) and North Carolina (Rose and Hassler 

 1968) in the western North Atlantic Ocean. Wang 

 (1979) used monthly modal progression of length- 

 frequency distributions to estimate the growth rate 

 of C. hippurus off eastern Taiwan in the western 

 Pacific Ocean. The estimated growth rates of C. hip- 

 purus off Florida and North Carolina differed slight- 

 ly, but the growth rate of C. hippurus in the western 

 Pacific Ocean was reported to be about twice as 

 great as those in the western North Atlantic Ocean. 



The purpose of this study was to validate estimates 

 of age and growth of larval and juvenile C. hippurus 

 and C. equiselis based on microstructure of otoliths 

 (sagittae) from fish of known age reared in captivity. 

 Otoliths from wild specimens captured in Hawaiian 

 waters were also used as a source of age and growth 

 information and these data were fitted to the von 

 Bertalanffy growth model. Ages of cultured and cap- 

 tured wild specimens were estimated by enumer- 

 ating presumed daily increments on the sagitta 

 following Pannella (1971). The daily nature of the 

 increments was validated by counts from sagittae 

 of fish reared in captivity and whose age was known. 

 Knowledge of growth rates of both species of 

 dolphins are useful to mariculturists who would like 

 to compare the growth rates of wild and cultured 

 individuals. Information on the growth rate of C. hip- 

 purus can also be of use to managers of Hawaiian 

 fishery resources. 



186 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. 1 



