Preliminary Report on the Marquesan Sardine, 
Harengula vittata, in Hawaii 
Thomas S. Hida and Robert A. Morris 1 
The Marquesan sardine, Harengula vittata, 
was introduced to Hawaiian waters in eight 
plantings from 1955 through 1959 by the Bu- 
reau of Commercial Fisheries in an attempt to 
establish this species as a supplementary bait 
fish for skipjack fishing. The details of the first 
seven introductions have been reported by 
Murphy (I960) and the eighth by Brock (I960). 
The eighth introduction comprised an estimated 
4,000 sardines ranging from 7.0 to 9.4 cm in 
standard length 2 and averaging 8.2 cm. This 
brought the estimated total number of sardines 
introduced to Hawaii to 144,000. All of the 
releases have been made around the island of 
Oahu (Fig. 1). 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION 
The introduction of the sardines was publi- 
cized by means of posters and letters. Commer- 
cial and sport fishermen and game wardens were 
asked to cooperate in supplying information on 
sightings and captures. Jars of formalin and 
labels for recording data concerning captures 
were supplied to the game wardens and the skip- 
jack fishermen, whose bait nets were considered 
a likely source of specimens. From 1956 through 
I960, 54 samples comprising 336 fish were 
turned in, the majority of them by skipjack fish- 
ermen. 
DISTRIBUTION 
Recaptures of Marquesan sardines have been 
reported from six of the eight major islands in 
1 U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological 
Laboratory, Honolulu, Hawaii. Manuscript received 
May 21, 1962. 
2 All of the length measurements appearing in this 
report are expressed in standard length, which is the 
distance from the tip of the snout to the end of the 
hypural. 
Hawaii ( Fig. 2 ) . The lack of reports from Lanai 
and Niihau may be due to the fact that skipjack 
fishermen rarely fish for bait in the waters 
around those islands. 
Tabic 1 lists all the sardine recoveries from 
the Hawaiian Islands. The first recapture was 
made in Keehi Lagoon, Honolulu, in 1956. 
Subsequent recoveries were from Barber’s Point 
and Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, in 1957. In 1958 sar- 
dines were taken at the islands of Kauai and 
Maui, where no releases had been made, and also 
in Honolulu Harbor and Pearl Harbor, Oahu, 
for the first time. In 1959 the sardine was re- 
ported from the islands of Hawaii and Kahoo- 
lawe, and for the first time from Haleiwa, Oahu. 
The first specimens from Molokai and from Na- 
wiliwili and Hanamaulu bays, Kauai, came in 
I960. Sardines have been taken from both the 
leeward and windward shores of Oahu and Kauai 
but only from the leeward shores of Hawaii, 
Maui, Kahoolawe, and Molokai ( Fig. 2 ) . 
Neither our knowledge of the life history of 
this species nor our observations of it in Ha- 
waiian waters are adequate to tell us whether 
the extension of its distribution from Oahu to 
the other islands has come about through migra- 
tion of the adults across the channels or through 
the drifting of eggs or larvae with the currents. 
The habitat occupied by the sardine seems to 
coincide with that of the nehu, Stolephorus 
purpureas, the most commonly used tuna bait 
fish in Hawaii. This distribution pattern may be 
only a sampling artifact, since most of the fishing 
with gear likely to take sardines is done by 
skipjack fishermen fishing for nehu. However, 
because of the chronic shortage of tuna bait in 
Hawaii, the fishermen are alert for reports of 
bait supplies even in areas outside the usual 
nehu fishing grounds. If sardines were present in 
conspicuous abundance in any accessible area, 
it appears highly probable that the fishermen 
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