lutroduction 



This second list of the names of fishes of 

 the United States and Canada is not sim- 

 ply a reprinting with corrections, but con- 

 stitutes a major revision and enlargement. 

 The earlier list, published in 1948 as Special 

 Publication No. 1 of the American Fisheries 

 Society, has been widely used and has 

 contributed substantially toward its goal of 

 achieving uniformity and avoiding confusion 

 in nomenclature. Of the 570 names on that 

 list, 560 are retained in the present version. 

 The 10 removed have since proved to be 

 synonyms of other included species, or are 

 extralimital. In the preparation of the first 

 list, the Committee made arbitrary decisions 

 as to what species should be included as 

 "better known fishes." As interest in fishes 

 expands, it becomes increasingly difficult to 

 determine when a given species merits an 

 approved vernacular or common name. The 

 present Committee has avoided this decision 

 by attempting to include common names for 

 all native and successfully introduced species 

 in the region of coverage. Except for possi- 

 ble errors of oversight, the chief failure to 

 realize complete listing involves small, rare, 

 and poorly -kno^vn forms near the periphery 

 of our area: Bering Sea, deepwater fishes 

 that occasionally are found over the conti- 

 nental shelf, and Caribbean species that 

 sporadically invade southern Florida. As 

 knowledge of such forms increases they may 

 be added in subsequent revisions. This list 

 includes 1892 entries, more than a threefold 

 increase. We make no apology for the greater 

 length, believing that these small, less well- 

 known fishes have real or potential impor- 

 tance as laboratory experimental animals, 

 in public or private aquaria, for bait, or, 

 most often, simply as objects of natural- 

 history inquiry or aesthetic appeal. The plan 

 of organization and indexing are such that 

 the inclusion of the lesser fishes need not 

 interfere with use by those not concerned 

 with them. 



Area of Coverage 



The present fist purports to include all 

 species of fishes known from the fresh waters 

 of the continental United States and Can- 

 ada, and those marine species inhabiting 

 contiguous shore waters on or above the 

 continental shelf, to a depth of 100 fathoms. 



The shore fishes from Greenland, eastern 

 Canada and the United States, and the 

 northern Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of 

 the Rio Grande are included, but those 

 from Iceland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Cuba 

 and the other West Indian islands, and 

 Mexico are excluded unless they occur also 

 in the region covered. In the Pacific, the 

 area treated includes that part of the conti- 

 nental shelf from the Mexican-United States 

 boundary to Bering Strait. The Arctic shore 

 waters of Alaska and Canada are included. 

 Hawaii, with a large and strikingly different 

 Indo-Pacific fish fauna, is excluded. Deep- 

 sea fishes, whether benthic or bathypelagic, 

 are excluded unless they appear also within 

 the 100-fathom isobath. In practice this line 

 of distinction is difficult to apply, and 

 becomes arbitrary to that extent. Pelagic 

 fishes that enter waters over the continental 

 shelf are included. The fist provides a 

 general guide to distribution: "A" denotes 

 Atlantic Ocean but includes the eastern 

 Arctic, "P" refers to Pacific Ocean and 

 includes the western Arctic, and "F" indi- 

 cates occurrence in fresh water. Appropriate 

 combinations of letters are used for those 

 fishes that live, either naturally or by intro- 

 duction, in more than one of these regions. 



Common Names 



The Committee aims at the development 

 of a body of common names that reflect 

 broad current usage, the creation of a 

 richer, more meaningful and colorful vernac- 

 ular nomenclature, and the promotion of 

 mechanisms that will add to stability and 

 the universality of names applied to Ameri- 

 can fishes. 



The common name as here employed is 

 viewed as a formal, usually anglicized 

 appellation to be used in lieu of the Latin- 

 ized scientific name of a species. It is hoped, 

 and the history of the recent past confirms, 

 that common names may be more stable 

 than scientific names. Certainly they should 

 be more readily adaptable to lay uses than 

 scientific names. There is clear need for 

 standardization and uniformity in vernac- 

 ular names not only for sport or commercial 

 fishes, but as trade names, for aquarium 

 fishes, in legal terminology, and as substi- 

 tutes for scientific names of almost any fish 



