ovaries encountered in this study. The fecundity 

 estimates (Table 3) ranged from 11.3 to 28.6 million 



Table 3. — Fecundity and related information on sailfish 

 and striped marlin from the eastern North Pacific collected 

 in 1969 and 1970. 



Fecundity 

 Maximum Estimate 

 Gonad Eye-Fork Ovary Ova Diam. (million 

 Index Length (cm) Weight (gm) (mm) eggs) 



Sailfish 



3.7 



185 



2359 



1.2 



1.8 





5.5 



163 



2359 



0.9 



2.4 





7.0 



176 



3810 



1.3 



3.0 





8.9 



187 



5760 



1.3 



5.1 



Striped 













Marlin 



4.42 



180 



2580 



0.6 



11.3 





8.17 



150 



2760 



0.6 



17.2 





9.53 



155 



3550 



0.6 



28.6 



eggs for striped marlin and from 1.8 to 5.1 million 

 eggs for sailfish. 



Spawning Season and Locality 



We are aware of only two publications that deal 

 with spawning seasons of striped marlin and sailfish 

 in the eastern Pacific (Kume and Joseph, 1969b and 

 Yurov and Gonzales, 1972). Kume and Joseph 



SEP OCT NOV DEC 



Figure 12. — Mean gonad index distribution and the 

 number of striped marlin sampled by month from Buena 

 Vista and Mazatlan. 



(1969b) found that the highest frequency of striped 

 marlin in spawning condition occurred in Quarter IV 

 in the southern hemisphere and in Quarter II in the 

 northern. Some were also in spawning condition in 

 Quarter III in the northern hemisphere. These au- 

 thors concluded that two spawning seasons existed 

 at opposite times of the year in the northern and 

 southern latitudes. This spawning pattern was also 

 noticed in the western Pacific (Ueyanagi, 1959; 

 Honma and Kamimura, 1958) and in the Indian 

 Ocean (Williams, 1963; Merrett, 1971). 



Our data (Fig. 12 and 13) show a gradual increase 







1 l l 1 1 



I I 



1 



1 1 



1 



- 







STRIPED MARLIN 







• MAXIMUM 









1.0 











° 95th CENTILE 





















- 



0-5 





. 



• i 





- 



• 









. • o go 



■ 4 





<F 













• • •< l* 1— f » } ~ 



-< •-••!»• 



i i i i i 



T» I"— "II 



1 1 



1 



-go. |B> 



1 1 



H 



i 





JAN FEB MAR APR MAY 



JUN JUL 



SEP OCT NOV DEC 



Figure 13. — Maximum ova diameter and 95th centile distributions by month from striped 

 marlin ovaries sampled by Buena Vista and Mazatlan. 



96 



