Pelagic Environment 



153 



the water onto the decks of ships. When 

 R/ V Velero IV is anchored at islands off the 

 coast, squids may sometimes be dip-netted 

 under a bright light hung overside at night. 

 Once, on the night of July 27, 1951, at Santa 

 Catalina Island a swarm of thousands or 

 tens of thousands of individuals collected 

 for mating (Fig. 133). As observed by John S. 

 Garth, mating was accompanied by rapid 

 color changes and followed by deposition in 

 the sand of the fertilized eggs. 



The most varied and yet perhaps the best- 

 known members of the nekton are the fishes. 

 Keys, sketches, and photographs for identi- 

 fication of common fishes of the region are 

 given by Barnhart (1936) and Roedel (1953). 

 Many of the fishes are dependent on the 

 bottom and are thus not truly pelagic, al- 



though they are part of the nekton. For 

 example. Garibaldi perch, sheepshead, caUco 

 bass, and moray eel inhabit areas of rock 

 and kelp. In areas of sand bottom are hah- 

 but, sand dab, sole, flounder, and skates. 

 Estuarine areas of mud or sandy mud have 

 mullet and mudsucker. Among the fishes 

 that live all or most of their lives far from 

 shore and over deep water are ones such as 

 sardine, herring, anchovy, salmon, flying 

 fish (Fig. 134), mackerel, barracuda, tuna, 

 bonito, marlin, swordfish, and large sharks. 

 These pelagic fishes, in contrast to those 

 living on or near the bottom, are capable of 

 very fast swimming. Laboratory experi- 

 ments reported by Gray (1957) indicate that 

 they can swim at speeds such that for short 

 bursts they can cover a distance in 1 second 



Figure 1 33. Swarm of mating squids, Loligo opalescenes Berry, at the water surface. Photographed by electronic 

 flash under a light hung overside from R/ V Velero IV at anchor in 30 meters of water at Emerald Cove, Santa Cata- 

 lina Island on July 27, 1951. Station 2047. 



