differentiate between sailfish and spearfish. Ueyanagi 

 et al. (1970) indicate, however, that concentrations of 

 Atlantic sailfish are greatest on the western side. 

 Large concentrations of sailfish in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 along the southeast coast of Florida, and throughout 

 the Carribbean are heavily fished by sports fisher- 

 men. 



In the eastern Atlantic abundance is apparently low 

 based on longline catch records. This may be mis- 

 leading since there are no established sport fishing 

 centers in the eastern Atlantic and longline operations 

 are often not close enough to shore to detect sailfish 

 concentrations. However, a localized area of high con- 

 centration of sailfish has been noted by Ovchinnikov 

 (1970) off West Africa (the Freetown-Conakry region). 

 He indicated that a similar accumulation of sailfish 

 also occurred in the western Atlantic in the region of 

 eastern and northeastern Brazil. 



In the Pacific, sailfish distribution is also more ex- 

 tensive in the western half than in the eastern (Fig. 3). 

 Longline catch data show sailfish catches as far south 

 as 27°S and as far north as lat. 40°N. Koto, 

 Furukawa, and Kodama (1959) reported heaviest con- 

 centrations near New Guinea, the Caroline Islands 

 and Solomon Islands, and in the Banda Sea, Timor 

 Sea, and East China Sea. Howard and Ueyanagi 

 (1965) suggested that there is a close relationship 

 between the distribution of sailfish in the western 

 Pacific and the Kuroshio Current since both adults 

 and juveniles are found in the coastal waters of Japan 

 in the Kuroshio Current. In the eastern Pacific, 

 longline catch records show a rather restricted dis- 

 tribution from lat. 5°S to 25°N (Kume and Joseph, 

 1969a). High catch rates near the coast of Mexico in- 

 dicate areas of high abundance. Sailfish are caught by 

 sport anglers near shore from the Gulf of California to 

 northern Peru. 



There is little information on sailfish distribution in 

 the Indian Ocean. Williams (1964) indicated that 

 sailfish are distributed throughout the East African 

 coastal area from lat. 1°30'N to 10°30'S with localized 

 concentrations. Japanese longliners catch small 

 numbers of sailfish throughout most of the Indian 

 Ocean to at least lat. 29°S in the western Indian 

 Ocean. 



Sailfish have been reported from the Mediterra- 

 nean; however, most of these reports were based on 

 larval or juvenile specimens and in at least one case 

 (Ben-Tuvia, 1966) have been subsequently identified 

 as the Mediterranean spearfish, Tetrapturus belone. 

 It is doubtful if sailfish occur in the Mediterra- 

 nean. 



2.2 Differential Distribution 



2.21 Spawn, larvae, and juveniles 



Gehringer (1956) reported on sailfish larvae cap- 

 tured in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico from 



March through October. He concluded that early 

 development of Atlantic specimens takes place in 

 warm Gulf Stream waters. In a later paper 

 (Gehringer, 1970) he examined larvae from the 

 eastern Atlantic captured in April. 



Ueyanagi (1959) found that sailfish larvae are close- 

 ly associated with the Kuroshio Current in the 

 western Pacific. In the eastern Pacific sailfish larvae 

 and juveniles have been captured from September 

 through April (Howard and Ueyanagi, 1965). 



Jones (1959) reported on 16 sailfish larvae captured 

 in February from the Laccadive Sea. 



See also 3.16. 



2.22 Adults 



Sailfish are year-round residents over most of their 

 range, however pronounced seasonal variations in 

 abundance and distribution are evident in most areas. 

 Wise and Davis (1973) showed that sailfish are caught 

 off Brazil by longliners all year long, but catches are 

 larger and over a broader area from October through 

 March than from April through September. Greatest 

 abundance in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico 

 is from April through September; few are caught in 

 the winter months. Voss (1953) stated that sailfish are 

 found off the lower Florida coast throughout the year 

 in considerable numbers, but during the summer 

 months they are less concentrated than in winter. 

 Cadenat (1961) has shown that sailfish in the eastern 

 Atlantic, off the Ivory Coast, are present inshore in 

 greatest abundance during the winter months, but 

 practically disappear from the coastal waters during 

 August to November. 



Howard and Ueyanagi (1965) reported that in the 

 eastern Pacific sailfish are present all year but 

 seasonal changes in density are marked. Kume and 

 Joseph (1969a) stated that sailfish appear to be abun- 

 dant off central Mexico all year with apparent 

 seasonal movements. In the Gulf of Panama sailfish 

 are most abundant from April-May through 

 November-December with a peak from June to 

 September. Near Acapulco, sailfish appear to be most 

 abundant in winter. From the Gulf of California 

 northward the period of greatest abundance is from 

 May to October. 



Nakamura (1949) stated that sailfish are most 

 abundant around June in the Kuroshio Current east 

 of the Philippine Islands and Formosa, and Koto et al. 

 (1959) indicated that sailfish are most abundant in 

 the East China Sea from November through April 

 with low densities from May through August. 



There is little information on seasonal distributions 

 in the Indian Ocean; however, at Malindi, Kenya, 

 Williams (1970) reported that sport catches are 

 restricted to the period October to March with peak 

 catches in December and January. That sailfish show 

 a peak in abundance during the northeast monsoon in 



100 



