STATUS OF THE WHITE MARLIN 

 IN THE EASTERN ATLANTIC 



Robins and de Sylva (1963: 89-90) reviewed the 

 synonymy of Tetrapturus belone and (p. 97) noted 

 that all literature records of that species from out- 

 side the Mediterranean Sea either apply to other 

 species or are without a verifiable basis. Sassi 

 (1846) recorded the first white marlin from the east- 

 ern Atlantic (from the Mediterranean Sea) under 

 the name Tetrapturus belone. Canestrini (1861) 

 recognized that Sassi's specimen in Genoa was not 

 belone and made it the type of his well described 

 and illustrated species, Tetrapturus lessonae. This 

 description, in fact, postdates Poey's (1860) de- 

 scription of Tetrapturus albidus from Cuba, by on- 

 ly one year. Since then Eastern Atlantic records of 

 albidus occur under Makaira nigricans, Tetrapturus 

 belone, T. lessonae in various combinations. Rob- 

 ins and de Sylva (1961: 97) referred the record of 

 T. belone by Legendre (1928) to albidus and discuss 

 other probable records. Gonpalves (1942: 54-55) 

 was perhaps the first to suggest that albidus 

 occurred in Portugal's waters. La Monte (1955: 

 331-332 first referred lessonae to the synonymy of 

 albidus and from this date albidus begins to appear 

 in records of Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean 

 specimens (Robins and de Sylva, 1961; Tortonese, 

 1961; Rodriguez-Roda and Howard, 1962). 

 Ueyanagi et al. (1970) summarize longline catches 

 of white marlin throughout the tropical and temper- 

 ate Atlantic. A review of the literature relative to T. 

 albidus and other "istiophorids" in the eastern At- 

 lantic is being prepared by Donald P. de Sylva. 



MATERIAL EXAMINED 



The 57 specimens identified as Tetrapturus al- 

 bidus were given field numbers coded EATL-1 to 

 57. Those numbered EATL-1 to 38 were studied at 

 Olhao, Portugal, the remaining 19 at Cadiz, Spain. 

 Most of the Cadiz specimens were caught on fishing 

 lines operated by swordfish fishermen in the Strait 

 of Gibraltar and to the west along the southern 

 coast of Portugal and Spain and the northern coast 

 of Morocco. Six were caught in tuna traps (almad- 

 rabas) near Huelva, Spain (west of Gibraltar) and 

 La Linea, Spain (immediately east of Gibraltar in 

 the Alboran Sea). The locations and dates of cap- 

 ture of numbers 39-57 were noted by Rodriguez- 

 Roda and Howard (1961: table 1) and these data are 

 not repeated here. 



The 38 specimens examined at Olhao, Portugal, 

 were mostly captured in traps (including Liv- 

 ramento, Medo dos Cascas, and Barril) off Tavira, 

 Portugal as follows (all dates in 1961): 6 Aug.: 

 EATL-1, 4, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19,31,35,37; 10 Aug.: 

 EATL-5; 12 Aug.: EATL-17; 17 Aug.: EATL-6, 7, 



10, 11; 21 Aug.: EATL-25, 26, 28; 22 Aug.: 

 EATL-22, 36, 38; 23 Aug.: EATL-21, 23, 24, 29, 

 32, 34. The remaining eight fish were hooked as 

 follows: off Tavira, Portugal; 31 July: EATL-3, 33; 

 1 Aug.: EATL-9; 16 Aug.: EATL-2. Off Olhao, 

 Portugal: 9 Aug.: EATL-18; 10 Aug.: EATL-20. 

 Off Fuzeta (near Olhao), Portugal: 21 Aug.: 

 EATL-30; 23 Aug.: EATL-27. 



Frank J. Mather, III has brought to my attention 

 two white marlin, 2,000 cm and 1,725 cm body 

 length, which were caught 6 October 1969, by long- 

 line off Cadiz, Spain. Sex was not determined. The 

 larger was estimated to weigh 65-70 kg. Although 

 not examined by the present writer, these records 

 are included here for sake of completeness of in- 

 formation on the subject. 



Explanation of the Tables 



The format of Appendix Tables 1 and 2 follows 

 that of Robins and de Sylva (1961, 1963). Numbers 

 in parentheses (first column) refer to the numbered 

 definitions of Rivas (1956). Field numbers are as 

 noted above. Specimens are arranged by increasing 

 body length and the field numbers therefore are not 

 in sequence. 



The following abbreviations are used. 



Di = spinous or first dorsal fin 



D2 = second dorsal fin 



C = caudal fin 



Ai = first anal fin 



A2 = second anal fin 



Pi = pectoral fin 



P2 = pelvic fin 



orig. = origin (in reference to fins) 



c.d. = caudal peduncle 



Sex 



Sex was determined and recorded for all speci- 

 mens except EATL-37. Only five of the 57 speci- 

 mens were males (Fig. 1). They are EATL-7, 10, 



1 1 , 33, 34, all caught in the Tavira-Olhao area, four 

 of them in traps (three on 17 August, one on 23 

 August), one on hook and line (31 July). All are 

 small, their weights being 35, 25, 27, 25, 25 kilo- 



165 



