SAURY DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE, PACIFIC COAST, 1950-55 



Information on the distribution and abundance of the saury, 

 Cololnbis saira , in the eastern Pacific has been obtained on the 

 monthly survey cruises of the California Cooperative Oceanic Fish- 

 eries Investigations. The information is of tu-o kinds: (1) collec- 

 tions of saury eggs in plankton hauls, and (2) visual observations 

 of saury abundance. 



The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations 

 are sponsored by the Marine Research Committee, and are carried out 

 cooperatively by the South Pacific Fishery Investigations of the 

 United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Scripps Institution of 

 Oceanography of the University of California, the Bureau of Marine 

 Fisheries of the California Department of Fish and Game, the Hopkins 

 Marine Station of Stanford University, and the California Academy of 

 Sciences. 



The eggs of the saury are unique among planktonic fish eggs in 

 CCOFI collections in that they frequently occur in clusters held 

 together by adhesive filaments. The clusters of saury eggs taken in 

 plankton hauls usually contain two to five eggs, and solitary eggs 

 are as commonly taken in plankton hauls as are eggs in clusters. 

 Occasionally, large clusters of eggs are found adhering to floating 

 objects, or are taken in plankton collections. Hence, it is known 

 that saury eggs do occur in large clusters. However, extensive frag- 

 mentation of free-floating clusters must occur soon after spavining. 

 Saury eggs occur so commonly in plankton collections that we consider 

 them to be primarily pelagic eggs that can be sampled by quantitative 

 plankton procedures. 



Records of saury eggs have not been reported previously. Data 

 for six years, 1950 through 1955, are included in table 1. The num- 

 bers given in the table are standard haul totals, hence are compar- 

 able for all stations and years. Information concerning the plankton 

 hauls is contained in the following series of reports: For 1950 

 (Staff of the South Pacific Fishery Investigations, 1954a); for 1951 

 (ibid, 1952); for 1952 (ibid, 1953); for 1953 (ibid, 1954b); for 1954 

 (ibid, 1955); and for 1955 (ibid, 195o). 



No analyses of the data will be given in this report. A manu- 

 script is being prepared by the authors dealing with the distribution 

 and abundance of the saury off the Pacific coast, based largely on the 

 data presented herein. 



