. jj_ QUUITER III 



-i 1 r 



4 I I 1 



ID 09 0*1 D2) 



. + + + ^ 



B) 9 BS WO) 



I t + t 



ID OJ (3) Ol ta 



LENGTH GROUPS (cm) 



Figure 9. — Striped marlin ova diameters versus eye-fork 

 length groups presented in quarters of the year. Numbers 

 of striped marlin sampled are given in parentheses. 



UJ- 



08- 



-i 1 r- 



I 



QUARTER II 



I I 



I4€l Wfl) 



QUARTER III 



QUARTER IV 



I 



120 130 WO 00 160 TO 



LENGTH GROUPS (cm) 



Figure 10. — Sailfish ova diameters versus eye-fork length 

 groups presented in quarters of the year. Numbers of 

 sailfish sampled are given in parentheses. 



Fecundity 



Little information is available on the fecundity of 

 striped marlin or sailfish. Nakamura (1949) conser- 

 vatively stated for billfishes in general that fecundity 

 ranges from 1 .0 to 1 .2 million eggs depending on size 

 and species. Merrett (1971) estimated a fecundity of 

 12 million eggs for an Indian Ocean striped marlin of 

 182 cm eye-fork length, with an ovary weight of 1 .53 

 kg and a mean maximum egg diameter of 0.470 mm. 

 In the central Pacific, Gosline and Brock (1960) 

 estimated 13.8 million eggs for one striped marlin 

 ovary. 



We estimated the fecundities of four fully mature 

 sailfish and three striped marlin by subsampling by 

 weight. All specimens had high gonad indices and 

 the striped marlin were specimens with the largest 



Figure 11. — Size frequency polygons for two mature sail- 

 fish (righthand curves) and one mature striped marlin. 



95 



