1 1 6 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



confinement (jj). Present indications are that a Tarpon does not ordinarily mature 

 sexually until it is about four feet long, i.e. until after the sixth or seventh winter 

 {13: 229-247). 



Spawning. Ripe or nearly ripe Tarpon have been captured at Boca Grande, Florida, 

 June 5-22 (j [1936]: 41), and several fish containing large roe have been taken from 

 the Panama Canal Zone during February, March, and April (jy. 25, 30, 2,S)- These 

 observations indicate that at least some of them spawn there during the spring. Captures 

 of both green and spent fish have shown that "the time of spawning on the west coast 

 of Florida is from May to September" (j [1936]: 43; 13: 226). 



The general belief that spawning takes place along shore, mostly in shoal water, 

 is borne out by Babcock's report that ripe females as well as males ejecting milt were 

 caught near Boca Grande (j [1936]: 41, 43) and that he received an eyewitness account 

 of pairs of Tarpon spawning in Charlotte Harbor, near Fort Myers, Florida. The 

 presence of very young fish at points as widely distributed as Texas, Alabama, Florida, 

 the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, and Trinidad seems sufficient evidence that 

 the breeding range is extensive — along the shores of both continent and islands from 

 the Gulf of Mexico eastward through the West Indies and Caribbean Sea areas. To 

 what extent it breeds farther southward is not known. The well-known presence of 

 young as well as large Tarpon in Lake Nicaragua also makes it likely that this fish 

 spawns there in fresh water. No evidence, however, has been found that the Tarpon 

 breeds in the lakes of the Panama Canal (j6: 240). It seems probable, therefore, that 

 the ripe fish there migrates to sea to spawn, using the locks of the Canal as a passageway. 



Habits. The Tarpon does not school, at least not habitually like the menhaden, for 

 example. When it does congregate in considerable numbers, as at the foot of the spill- 

 ways of the dams in the Canal Zone, it does so presumably because food is abundant 

 there. In other places it sometimes congregates in pursuit of schools of fish. The fish 

 apparently is sensitive to cold water and will move away from it if possible. Even in 

 southern Florida it disappears from the inshore waters during cool weather {34: 21 1). 

 If it migrates out to sea, as it probably does at times to escape from cold water, it 

 seems highly probable that it remains at or near the surface where the water generally 

 is warmest and where it can utilize the modified air bladder for breathing. The Tar- 

 pon more or less habitually ascends freshwater streams, and in some places, in the 

 tropics at least, it occupies freshwater lakes more or less permanently (j6: 240; see 

 also Habitat). 



The rolling movements of the Tarpon at the surface of the water are familiar to all 

 fishermen. As these movements reveal its presence, anglers watch for this activity. 

 Why the fish practices such movements habitually was not understood until it was dis- 

 covered that it possesses an air bladder supplied with a large amount of lung tissue 

 (j6: 246). After the fish has rolled at the surface and descended, bubbles appear at 

 the surface, these presumably being air exhaled below the surface. 



It has been suggested by several writers that the great leaps often executed by 

 the Tarpon seem to serve a different purpose from rolling movements: to escape from 



