in February through April, June, August, Oc- 

 tober, and November (fig. 4). 



Collections of larval and juvenile skipjack 

 tuna in the western tropical Atlantic have in- 

 cluded: 6 juveniles in the Gulf of Mexico in 

 August (Klawe and Shimada, 1959); 1 1 larvae 

 in the Florida Current- -4 in April, 1 in May, 

 3 in July, 2 in August, and 1 in October (Klawe, 

 1960); 20 juveniles between Cape Hatteras and 

 the Bahama Islands in December (Klawe, 

 1961); 16 larvae in Cuban waters in May, Au- 

 gust, and September (Gorbunova and Sala- 



barria, 1967); 26 larvae off Bimini, the Ba- 

 hamas, in June (William J. Richards, personal 

 communication); and 18 juveniles from the 

 stomachs of tunas captured off St. Vincent 

 Island, British West Indies, in April, 1 juve- 

 nile off Cape Hatteras, N.C., in April, and 22 

 juveniles regurgitated by (chiefly) sooty terns 

 (Sterna fuscata) on Bush Key, Dry Tortugas, 

 Fla., in May through July (Thomas C. Potthoff, 

 personal communication). A summary of the 

 larval and juvenile collection data is shown in 

 table 2. 



100 - 



ui 

 u 



X 

 UJ 



a. 



50 



EARLY DEVELOPING (STAGE 1) 



[[J] ADVANCED (STAGE 3) 



(6) (51) (68) 



HUWLUM 



M SPAWNED (STAGE 5) 



(10) 

 ii i .i. i i ' 



(6) 



(11 



(2) (17) 



JAN 



FEB 



MAR 



APR 



MAY 



JUN 



JUL 



AUG 



SEP 



OCT 



NOV 



DEC 



Figure 4.— Monthly percentage distribution of developmental stages of the ovaries of mature skipjack tuna from the 

 western tropical Atlantic. No ovaries were collected in January, May, July, and December. 



