Figure 4.— Testes of Tetrapturus pfluegeri, 1,577-mm body 

 length, 34 lb, taken off Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 25 September 1958 

 (spec. 14). 



taken in every month. The species seems always to be 

 present though in small numbers. There is no known 

 area of postspawning aggregations as is the case with 

 the white marlin. The scarcity of fish makes any tag- 

 ging program unfeasible. 



3.52 Schooling 



Fishermen have experienced on several occasions a 

 "double-header," that is, a situation where two fish 

 cross the stern and take both trolled baits. Such pair 

 formation is known for other billfishes and is common 

 in the dolphin, Coryphaena hippurus. Sexes of the 

 paired fish are unknown and frequently only one of 

 the two involved is boated. In C. hippurus, the pair is 

 usually but not always male and female. Such pair 

 formation is more likely related to hunting procedure. 



T. pfluegeri. This work, to be submitted to the Dana 

 Reports, is not yet in press. There is no published in- 

 formation on the early development of pfluegeri. De 

 Sylva (1963:125, 130) has compared the juvenile (the 

 same individual shown in Fig. 1) with those of the 

 Tetrapturus albidus, Istiophorus albicans (=/. 

 platypterus), and Makaira nigricans. 



3.3 Adult Phase 



3.31 Longevity 



As noted in 3.1 and in Figure 3, few fish are more 

 than 3 yr old (age class II). However, this is theoretical 

 and no detailed age and growth study has been made. 



3.4 Nutrition and Growth 



Ovchinnikov (1970:Table 7) reported on stomach 

 contents of specimens from northeastern Brazil. 

 These data differ from those given for white marlin 

 and Atlantic sailfish from the same region. Unfor- 

 tunately incidence of a food item is reported only in 

 percent of total numbers of stomachs examined and 

 inasmuch as no item appeared in fewer than 11% of 

 the stomachs, we must conclude that only nine 

 stomachs were studied, a small sample for this type of 

 study. All but one of the food items are of the type 

 that is found at or near the surface and under drift 

 materials. Alepisaurus sp. is reported from 22.5% of 

 the stomachs (2 stomachs?). Presumably a gempylid 

 was involved instead. 



It is expected that T. pfluegeri feeds on small and 

 medium-sized fishes and cephalopods in surface 

 waters and that availability will largely determine the 

 nature of the composition of the diet from place to 

 place or season to season. 



3.5 Behavior 



Nothing is known of migrations or local movements. 

 In southeastern Florida where there is good sport 

 fishing effort throughout the year, fish have been 



4 POPULATION 

 4.1 Structure 



4.11 Sex ratio 



Most fish examined at taxidermy shops have the in- 

 ternal organs soft, largely disintegrated in the case of 

 the gonads. For this reason we have few specimens for 

 which sex determination is positively given. Of 18 

 such identifications 9 each were male and female. 

 Presumably the sex ratio is 1:1 as these few data 

 suggest. 



4.12 Age composition 



For reasons explained above most of the population 

 consists of year classes 0, I, and II, few fish entering 

 year class III. They enter the sport fishery when they 

 are 1 yr old and probably mature at about their sec- 

 ond birthday. Maximum age is currently indicated at 

 less than 4 yr, but there is no appreciable growth at 

 this age and a few fish may live another year. 



Beyond this nothing is known of population struc- 

 ture. 



5 EXPLOITATION 



5.1 Fishing Equipment 



5.11 Gears 



The longbill spearfish is fished by anglers in the 

 same manner that they fish for other billfishes. No 

 one specifically fishes for spearfish. Gear and tackle 

 preferences vary but all are well documented in the 

 sport fishing literature. Large baits such as those used 

 by some anglers for blue marlin will not succeed with 

 the much smaller spearfish. As many as 10 fish per 

 year are sent to each of the two principal taxidermy 



35 



