348 



EIGHTH PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS 



Hawaii and the mainland United States lie about 2000 miles of deep 

 water. There are no shallow-water fishes common to the Hawaiian 

 Islands and the shores o£ North America, though a few high seas 

 species, e.g., the albacore, inhabit both regions. To the south of the 

 United States, America slopes away from Hawaii, so that the distance 

 from Hawaii to Panama is about 4000 miles. Thus the nearest American 

 coasts with water temperatures similar to those of Hawaii are separated 

 from that island by at least 2500 miles of deep sea. The Hawaiian fish 

 fauna has derived little or nothing from tropical American waters. 



The nearest shallow-water areas to the Hawaiian chain lie to the 

 south and west. The Line Islands (Fig. 1) south of Honolulu extend 

 to within about 850 miles of Hawaii and to 800 miles southeast of 

 Johnston. Due west of Hawaii, Wake (Fig. 1), a northern outlier of 

 the Marshalls, lies about 1200 miles southwest of Midway (and about 

 half way between Honolulu and Japan). 



Water Temperatures 

 With regard to surface-water temperatures, it can be seen from 

 Table I that all of the islands of the Hawaiian chain. Wake, Johnston, 

 and Palmyra (in the northern Line Islands) have about the same tem- 

 peratures in summer; there is, however, considerable difference between 

 the northern parts of the Hawaiian chain and the other islands men- 

 tioned in winter. Since the Hawaiian fish fauna is essentially a tropical 

 one, it would seem probable that if any temperatures are critical for 

 Hawaiian fishes, they are those of winter. Consequently summer tem- 

 peratures Avill be dismissed from furtlier consideration. In winter, the 

 differences in water temperatures within the Hawaiian chain are greater 

 than those between Hawaii and the northern Line Islands or Wake. 



TABLE I 



Surface Water Temperature (from Sverdrup, Johnson, and Fleming, 



Charts II and III) 



