314 



RANDALL AND RANDALL 



Indo-West-Pacific as a whole is much too low. By analyzing 

 the 111 shorefish families which occur nonmarginally on 

 the Pacific Plate, Springer estimated that there are 461 

 genera and an estimated 1312 species. Thus the Marshall 

 Islands, with 817 species, have 62% of the total Pacific 

 Plate fish fauna. 



Proper comparisons between island groups of the 

 Pacific are possible only when there has been a compa- 

 rable collecting effort as well as an accurate compilation of 

 species. This would seem to be the case only for the 

 Hawaiian Islands, Society Islands, Samoa Islands, southern 

 Mariana Islands, and Easter Island. 



Randall (1981a) stated that approximately 610 sp>ecies 

 of fishes occur in the Hawaiian Archipelago. By excluding 

 those which are pelagic, deep sea, or freshwater species, 

 he arrived at 420 which could be regarded as reef and 

 shore fishes. This figure should be modified to 460 to 

 include epipelagic species, recent new records, and new 

 species (to make it equivalent to estimates herein from 

 other island groups). The extreme isolation of the 

 Hawaiian Islands, both geographically and hydrographi- 

 cally, accounts for its somewhat impoverished fish fauna. 



Randall (1973) provided a preliminary checklist of 616 

 fishes from the Society Islands. By eliminating those which 

 occur in deep water or fresh water but adding new 

 records, the list is revised to 620. 



Wass (1984) has prepared a checklist of fishes of the 

 Samoa Islands. His total for the list is 958, which includes 

 84 identified only to genus. If those which occur in deep 

 water and in fresh water are eliminated, along with dubi- 

 ous literature records, the total is lowered to 915. The 

 Samoa Islands lie marginally on the Pacific Plate. There is 

 a continental component to the fish fauna of Samoa due to 

 its proximity to the continental plate. These islands are 

 mostly high islands with a greater variety of habitats than 



one finds on atolls. Furthermore, they arc less isolated 

 from other island groups than are the Marshalls. There- 

 fore, a greater number of species of fishes should be 

 expected from Samoa. 



Shepard and Myers (1981) published a preliminary 

 checklist of the fishes of Guam and other southern Mariana 

 Islands. Their total is 801, from which 12 should be sub- 

 tracted due to occurrence in deep water or fresh water. 

 Myers (MS submitted to Micronesica) has raised the num- 

 ber of fishes for the Marianas to 854 (not including fresh- 

 water and deep-sea species). The Marianas are also high 

 islands which lie on the margin of the Pacific Plate. 



Randall and Cea Egana (1984) made a checklist of the 

 fishes of Easter Island. Only 130 shore and epijselagic 

 species have been found at this small, remote South 

 Pacific island. Recent collecting by Randall and colleagues 

 has raised the total to 155 species. 



Springer (1982) has provided an analysis of endemic 

 fishes of the Pacific Plate. He placed them in three 

 categories. Type 1 endemics are those that are widely dis- 

 tributed on the Plate, Type 2 are those that are limited to 

 a few islands or island groups, and Type 3 are those that 

 are found only at a single island or island group. The 

 Marshall Islands have 28 of the 48 Type 1 Plate endemics 

 tabulated by Springer. Of the Type 2 endemics. Springer 

 listed only Pomachromis exi/is and Labropsis micronesica 

 from the Marshalls. Type 3 endemics (the most common 

 type) are found mainly at high islands. Springer mentioned 

 only three from the Marshalls, Acanthoplesiops hiatti, 

 Amphiprion tricinctus, and Cirricaecula johnsoni. To these 

 one might add Hypoat/ierina barnesi, Pseudochromis aurea 

 marshallensis, and Aseraggodes smithi. 



In the Pacific, the Hawaiian Archipelago has the 

 highest percentage of endemism among its shore fishes, 

 with 30%; Easter Island is next with 27.3%; Lord Howe 



TABLE 2 

 Summarv of Nonsystematic Fish Research at Enewetak 



Type of study 



Fish taxa' 



Reference 



Acoustics and 

 environment 



Artificial reefs 



Coral reef 

 community 



Fauna of nuclear 

 test crater 



Ecology and Behavior 



Holocentrus spp., Myriprisfis spp. 

 Carcharhinidae 



Reef fishes 



Reef fishes 



Reef fishes 



Chaetodontidae, Pomacentridae 



Acanthurus guttatus, A triostegus, Scarus jonesi 



Acanthuridae and Scaridae 



Reef fishes 



Horch and Salmon, 1973 

 Nelson and Johnson, 1972 



Nolan, 1974 



Hiatt and Strasburg, 1960 

 Odum and Odum, 1955 

 Reese, 1973 

 Webb and Wiebe, 1975 

 Weibe et al., 1975 



Nolan et al., 1955 



The scientific names given in the table are those that appeared in the publication cited. Some of these names have been 

 changed (see checklist herein). 



(This table continued on next page.) 



