426 
Fishery Bulletin 1 13(4) 
Table 4 
Conventional mark and recapture movements of dolphinfish ( Coryphaena hippurus ) reported from recreational and commer- 
cial fishermen participating in the Dolphinfish Research Program in the western and central North Atlantic and Caribbean 
Sea from 2004-2012. DAL=days at liberty. 
Tag (no.) 
Date tagged 
Date recaptured 
DAL 
Distance 
(km)“ 
Speed 
(km/d) 
Nearest 
locality to 
tagging location 
Nearest 
locality to 
recapture location 
1 
8-Nov-2011 
30-May-2012 
203 
1916.22 
9.43 
San Juan, PR 
Charleston, SC 
2 
15-May-2004 
ll-Feb-2005 
240 
4002.77 
17.94 
Charleston, SC 
Azores Islands 
3 
20-Jun-2011 
2-Mar-2012 
256 
2049.59 
8.00 
Marathon, FL 
St. Barthelemy 
4 
10-Jun-2008 
17-May-2009 
341 
2058.68 
6.03 
Big Pine Key, FL 
St. Kitts 
5 
19-Jun-2004 
4-Feb-2005 
230 
2109.22 
9.17 
Biscayne, FL 
Antigua 
6 
8-Jun-2007 
26-Feb-2008 
263 
2651.57 
10.08 
Charleston, SC 
Puerto Columbia, Venezuela 
7 
23-Jul-2004 
26-Mar-20Q5 
246 
1610.13 
6.54 
Islamorada, FL 
Guanica, Puerto Rico 
8 
l-Jun-2011 
9-Dec-2012 
557 
1613.39 
2.89 
Miami, FL 
Guanica, Puerto Rico 
9 
7-Aug-2009 
26-Mar-2010 
231 
1975.73 
8.55 
Charleston, SC 
Guanica, Puerto Rico 
10 
15-May-2004 
ll-Feb-2005 
330 
1711.23 
5.18 
Charleston, SC 
Costa Maya, Mexico 
11 
l-Aug-2007 
18-Mar-2008 
230 
198.47 
0.86 
Islamorada, FL 
Playa Escondido, Cuba 
12 b 
2-Jun-2010 
12-Dec-2010 
192 
1140.57 
5.94 
Miami, FL 
Puerto Plata, DR 
13 6 
14-Jul-2011 
22-Feb-2012 
223 
342.56 
1.53 
Miami, FL 
Exuma Sound, Bahamas 
14 6 
24-Jul-2004 
2-Apr-2005 
252 
598.91 
2.37 
Islamorada, FL 
Playa Blanca, Cuba 
15 b 
10-Jun-2009 
24-Apr-2010 
318 
657.21 
2.06 
Big Pine Key, FL 
Long Island, Bahamas 
“Minimum straight-line distance. 
^’Previously published data taken with permission from Merten et al. (2014b). 
1982). However, larvae and early juveniles have been 
collected year-round off the southeastern United States 
and in the Caribbean Sea (Rose and Hassler, 1968; Dit- 
ty et ah, 1994). 
Length-frequency distributions based on data col- 
lected around the region indicate the seasonal ar- 
rival and departure of different cohorts (Rivera and 
Appeldoorn, 2000), again indicating multiple spawn- 
ing events. However, the seasonal arrival of different 
cohorts may also result from schooling behavior and 
swimming speeds of similar-size fish or from the sea- 
sonal dynamics of the “delivery system” (e.g., cycling of 
Sargassum mats, which serve as a mobile habitat that 
constantly supports recruitment); the cycling of Sar- 
gassum may be more of an influence than reproductive 
timing on dolphinfish population dynamics, especially 
off Puerto Rico (Rivera and Appeldoorn, 2000). 
Movements of dolphinfish found by conventional 
mark and recapture methods linked most sampled re- 
gions and provide a basis for regional connectivity and 
population mixing (Table 4; Fig. 1). Along the U.S. East 
Coast, dolphinfish move north (Merten et ah, 2014a) 
and appear to make circuits around the Sargasso Sea 
and multiple movements from Florida to the Bahamas, 
Dominican Republic, and Cuba (Merten et ah, 2014b). 
Movements to the Caribbean Sea are likely extensions 
of these shorter circuits, determined by how far north 
dolphinfish exit from waters of the U.S. East Coast. Ex- 
iting north of Little Bahama Bank will result in shorter 
migratory routes around the western central Atlantic 
than staying with the Gulf Stream and exiting off the 
Mid-Atlantic Bight. The former would result in a more 
direct route to the Bahamas, but the latter would likely 
result in eventual movement toward the northeastern 
Caribbean Sea. Together, the low genetic structure and 
the evidence of high dispersal capabilities of this spe- 
cies support recognition of a single stock (both fishery 
and genetic) throughout the western central Atlantic, 
with exchange between the central North Atlantic on 
the basis of sequence data and observed movement to 
the Azores Islands (Table 4, Fig. 1). 
A population is composed of individuals that co-oc- 
cur in space and time and interbreed, and a stock is 
a subgroup of the main population, capable of inter- 
breeding, but differs in some way from the main popu- 
lation (i.e., timing of migration, percent occurrence by 
location, or growth rates) (Waples et ah, 2008). Here, 
the high potential for long-distance migration indicated 
by the tagging data and the low reproductive isolation 
indicated by the genetic analyses of dolphinfish sam- 
pled in the western central Atlantic do not support the 
identification of 2 stocks as proposed by Oxenford and 
Hunte (1986). However, the number of samples was low 
from the eastern Caribbean Sea (N=43) and the central 
North Atlantic (N=8), and those low numbers of sam- 
ples represent a major constraint in this study. With 
only 8 samples from the central North Atlantic, it is 
unlikely that genetic structure would be detected with 
any type of genetic marker. Additionally, the number 
of tagged fish showing movement between the eastern 
