Atlantic and Pacific populations (see 1.22) there are 

 some indications of possible differentiation of certain 

 populations, but according to Morrow and Harbo 

 (1969), "there is little consistency in the direction of 

 these indications." 



Morrow and Harbo show some differentiation with 

 age, and Vick (1963) examined allometric and 

 isometric growth of adult /. platypterus in some 

 detail, but extreme differences are noted in the young 

 and will be covered in 3.2. 



1.32 Cytomorphology 

 Nothing found in the literature. 



1.33 Protein specificity 

 Nothing found in the literature. 



2 DISTRIBUTION 



2.1 Total area 



Sailfish are circumtropical, occurring in all warm 

 waters of the world. In the Atlantic Ocean sailfish 

 range from lat. 30° S to 30°N on the western side with 

 only occasional stragglers beyond these limits. Voss 

 (1953) stated that individuals taken as far north as 

 the Gulf of Maine are apparently summer stragglers 

 and their distribution is extended during long, hot 

 summers with prevailing southerly winds. In the 

 eastern Atlantic distribution is generally more 

 restricted, from lat. 10° S to 20°N (Fig. 2). It may be 

 inferred that the densest concentrations also occur in 

 the western Atlantic close to land masses according to 

 data from the Japanese longline fishery with the tacit 

 realization that Japanese commercial vessels fail to 



80" 60° 40° 



80° 60° 40° 20° 



100 



1 



1 ! ■ ' ' ' J 



Figure 2. — Distribution of catches of sailfish and spearfish (per 1,000 hooks) in the four quarters of the year, 1956-68 (from 



Wise and Davis, 1973). 



98 



