Takao Maru^^> in September 1940, in the center of the same sea 



(10° No - 15° No 3 eight fish were taken. A tabular compari- 



area 



son of the catches of these two survey vessels is as follows? 



Table 2 

 Comparison of Catches (central part of East Philippines Seaj 



Note? % indicates the composition of the catcho 



A look at the above table shows that there is no great difference 

 in the proportion of yellowfin, but the black marlin decrease 

 markedly and the short-nosed spearfish show a conspicuous in- 

 creaseo Considered seasonally, such a difference in the catch 

 occurs in a matter of about 2 monthso Since the surveys were 

 made in different years, it is hard to make any definite state- 

 ment, but it is thought that the variations shown in the table 

 accompany the change of seasono If this fact is taken together 

 with the above-described distribution in the waters east of 

 Formosa, it can be thought that the distribution of this species 

 in these sea areas gradually becomes denser from September on,, 



The sailfish is of extraordinarily wide occurrence and 

 comes into the coastal waters so far as to be taken in trapso 

 In Japanese waters they are numerous south of KislfiT, and the 

 northern limit of their distribution is off Northeastern Japano 

 They are commonly seen in the Ryukyu and i'ormosa areas, being 

 especially abundant in summero The season of dense distribution 

 coincides with the spawning season for this species in these 

 waters o 



ICo f ormosana appears to have approximately the same dis- 

 tribution and migrations as the short -nosed spearfish, but the 

 details are not yet knowno From a consideration of certain 

 data it appears that this species appears in the waters east 

 of Formosa somewhat later than the short-nosed spearfisho 



The striped marlin is also extremely widely distributed, 

 occurring in all of the tropical waters of the Pacific and in 



(6) 



Originally the research vessel of Takao -shu ^yormosa^o 



46 



