of this species. Sanzo (1909, 1910b) 

 described eggs taken from ripe bluefin 

 caught off Sicily. Later Sanzo (1929, 

 1932) described pelagic eggs which he 

 collected in the Strait of Messina in 

 May and June, and larvae which were 

 hatched from these eggs and reared for 

 six days. Sanzo concluded that these 

 were the eggs and larvae of bluefin 

 tuna, because the eggs matched those 

 taken from a ripe female, and the six- 

 day-old larvae hatched from them 

 matched the smallest of the identifiable 

 bluefin tuna larvae which he had col- 

 lected off Messina. More recently, how- 

 ever, several authors who have exam- 

 ined Mediterranean material have con- 

 cluded that bluefin tuna eggs could not 

 be identified positively unless they were 

 hatched and the larvae were reared to 

 an identifiable size (Piccinetti and 

 Piccinetti Manfrin 1970, Duclerc et al. 

 1 973, Scaccini et al. 1 975). Collections 

 of larger larvae and juveniles were also 

 reported (Sella 1924, 1929a; Sparta 

 1933, Padoa 1956, Scaccini 1965, 

 Piccinetti and Piccinetti Manfrin 1970). 

 Although Sella (1924) explained the 

 differences between juvenile T. rliynnus 

 Ihynnus, T. alalimga and Auxis bisus, 

 these early collections were not thor- 

 oughly described or illustrated. Recently 

 Scaccini (1961) and Scaccini et al. 

 (1975) published a photograph of some 

 of Sella's material and reproduced 

 drawings of larvae 4-12 mm long pre- 

 pared under his guidance as well as 

 their own photographs of eggs, larvae 

 and juveniles. 



Watson identified and described, 

 with illustrations, larval and juvenile 

 bluefin from 11.4 to 37.8 mm long 

 collected off Messina, Sicily, during 

 the summer months of 1958, 1959 and 

 1 960 (Watson and Mather 1 96 1 ). These 

 identifications, based on external char- 

 acters (Sella 1924) and osteological 

 characteristics examined by radiogra- 

 phy, were subsequently verified by T.C. 

 Potthoff (personal communication) of 

 the Southeast Fisheries Center of the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, who 

 examined additional vertebral charac- 

 teristics after clearing and staining the 

 specimens. 



Many additional identifications of 

 juvenile Mediterranean bluefin tuna 

 were obtained after the Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution collection 

 was donated to the Southeast Fisheries 



Center of the National Marine Fisher- 

 ies Service at Miami, Florida. TC. 

 Potthoff (personal communication) 

 identified 60 of the specimens which 

 had been collected in Sicilian waters 

 during the months of July, August and 

 September as Thunmistlwrmusthyiimis. 

 The lengths and the dates and localities 

 of capture of these specimens, which 

 include the four largest ones reported 

 by Watson and Mather (1961), are 

 shown in Table 16. 



The most numerous records of lar- 

 val and juvenile bluefin tuna are from 

 Sicilian waters, but these forms have 

 been encountered in several other parts 

 of the Mediterranean. 



Roule (1917) cited Bourge's 

 (1908) records which showed the ap- 

 parent growth of juvenile bluefin col- 

 lected off Tunisia. These young fish 

 weighed about 150 g in August, at- 

 tained 900 g in September, and ex- 

 ceeded 1 kg in October. 



Richards (1976) reidentified two 

 of Ehrenbaum's (1924) larval speci- 

 mens, originally identified as 

 ''Eulhynniis alliteratus Raf (?)", taken 

 near the Balearic Islands in late August 

 1910, as Thunnus thynnus ihynnus. 

 Roule (1917) had tentatively listed these 

 islands as a spawning area for this spe- 

 cies. In 1972 Duclerc etal. (1973) col- 

 lected eight bluefin tuna larvae near the 

 Balearic Islands between June 20 and 

 July 7. They also collected pelagic eggs 

 which fitted Sanzo's description of 

 those of bluefin tuna, but, even after 

 hatching some of these and raising the 

 larvae for periods of up to four or five 

 days, they were unable to distinguish 

 eggs of T ihynnus ihynnus from those 

 of ".4!tY/.v ihazard\ 



Dieuzeide (1951) listed the cap- 

 tures of three bluefin tuna larvae off the 

 coast of Algeria June 7-8, 1940. He 

 provided drawings of two of these, 

 which were 5 and 6 mm long. 



Table 16. Collection data and lengths of bluefin tuna from Sicilian waters. M.E. 

 Watson originally identified most of the specimens. T.C. PotthofT subsequently 

 confirmed her determinations and identified the remaining individuals. 



Collection Area 

 Collection Date 



Standard Length (mm) 



I. Straits of Messina 



July, 1949 



July 15 -Aug 31, 1958 

 July- August, 1959 

 June 30 -July 1, I960 

 July 18-20, 1960 

 July 24 -25, 1960 

 July 26 -27. 1960 

 August 20 -21, 1960 

 August - September, 1 960 

 August 10-20, 1963 

 Unknown 



2. Palermo 



August 



1963 



17.4, 19.4,24.9,34.3.36.8,37.1 



33.7 



30.5,31.0,31.0,32.0,34.2 



16.9 



17.0, 17.7, 19.5,22.5,24.8,25.1,26.3.26.9 



1 7.7, 1 8.9, 20.9, 2 1 .0, 25.9, 28.0. 28.9 



32.4,33.4,34.5,38.5 



45.3, 50.4 50.5 



17.6 



62.0, 64.6, 66.4, 7 1 .3. 74.0, 76. 1 . 87.5. 99.6 



12.6, 15.5, 16.7 



16.9, 16.9, 17.1, 17.3, 18.7. 19.5. 20.1, 



20.3.20.5,27.3,30.4 



107.8, 117.5 



The Messina specimens were purchased by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 

 from G. Arena of Messina. I he Palermo specimens were donated to the Institution by P. 

 Tarantino of Dorclicslcr. Mas.sachusctts. .All ofthc specimens ucrc subsequently donated 

 to the Southea.st 1 Ishcries Science Center. National Marine Fisheries Service, Miami, 

 Florida, and arc now in its Lollection. 



