434 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL XVII, October 1963 
Fig. 1. Map of Oahu showing areas where sar- 
dines have been released. 
jack fishermen. The school remained in Waimea 
Bay until January 1959; its disappearance from 
the Bay coincided with a storm which occurred 
in that month. In March, 1959, a skipjack boat 
caught 3 buckets of sardines at Kawaihae, Ha- 
waii, and reported catching 900 lb of skipjack 
with them, a bait-catch ratio comparable to that 
ordinarily obtained using nehu. The fishermen 
commented that the sardines were an excellent 
bait. In October, 1959, an estimated 500 sardines 
were caught in Keehi Lagoon, Oahu, by skipjack 
fishermen. These were used for bait, but no 
report was submitted on the results. The latest 
report of sizeable sardine catches came from 
Port Allen, Kauai, where a catch of 100 sardines 
was made in May, I960, and a catch of 500 
sardines and another of 100 was made in July, 
I960. Aside from these few instances of fairly 
large catches, most of the reports from the fisher- 
men have indicated that the sardine was taken 
or sighted only in small numbers. Thus, although 
the sardine appears to be well established in 
Hawaii, it is apparently not abundant, at least 
not in areas frequented by fishermen, and is not 
as yet making any significant contribution as a 
bait fish. 
FOOD 
We examined the stomach contents of 132 
sardines caught in Hawaii to study their food 
habits in their new environment. This examina- 
tion covered samples representative of all areas 
from which specimens had been turned in. Only 
fish with identifiable food organisms were in- 
cluded in the analysis. We did not consider as 
food items nematodes, wood, and other foreign 
matter, or material which we could not readily 
identify. Thirty-nine (30%) of the stomachs 
examined were considered to be empty. This 
high percentage of empty stomachs was prob- 
ably due to the fact that many of the fish had 
been held captive for several days in baitwells. 
In terms of the percentage frequency of oc- 
currence of various organisms in the stomachs 
of all samples (Table 2), copepods were first, 
followed by gastropod larvae, adult and larval 
shrimp, crab larvae, fish larvae, amphipods, and 
polychaetes. Copepods were also observed in the 
greatest numbers. 
The following list of the numbers and kinds 
of organisms found in the well-distended stom- 
ach of a 9.4-cm sardine caught at Kihei, Maui, 
represents the quantity and variety of food that 
may be taken by this fish: 
689 copepods 24 lucifers 
34 amphipods 7 ostracods 
30 shrimp larvae 3 crab megalops 
27 crab zoeae 3 stomatopod larvae 
1 unidentified fish larva 
In contrast, the stomach of another 9.4-cm 
sardine appeared filled to capacity with three 
nehu larvae about 3 cm long. 
Of the fish examined, 50% were between 3-5 
and 6.0 cm long, the rest ranging up to 14.5 cm. 
Fig. 2. Map of the Hawaiian Islands showing the 
areas from which sardines have been recovered. 
