FAO Fisheries Synopsis No. 125, Volume 2 FIR/S125 Vol. 2 FAO SPECIES CATALOGUE VOL. 2 SCOMBRIDS OF THE WORLD AN ANNOTATED AND ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF TUNAS, MACKERELS, BONITOS, AND RELATED SPECIES KNOWN TO DATE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS FAO Fisheries Synopsis No. 125, Volume 2 FIR/S125 Vol. 2 FAO SPECIES CATALOGUE VOL. 2 SCOMBRIDS OF THE WORLD An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Tunas, Mackerels, Bonitos and Related Species Known to Date prepared by Bruce B. Collette and Cornelia E. Nauen NOAA, NMFS Marine Resources Service Systematics Laboratory Fishery Resources and Environment Division National Museum of Natural History FAO Fisheries Department Washington, D.C. 20560, USA 00100 Rome, Italy UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome 1983 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. M-42 ISBN 92-5-101381-0 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome Italy. © FAO 1983 . - - iii - PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT The present publication, prepared under the UNDP/FAO Project for the Survey and Identification of World- Marine Fish Resources (GLO/82/001), is the second worldwide species catalogue issued within the FAO Fisheries Synopses series. From the initial idea of Publishing an annotated world list of scombrids the draft evolved during the various stages of elaboration to become an illustrated catalogue encompassing also information on the habitat, biology and fisheries for each species. The preparation of the document in its final form was carried out at the Marine Resources Service of the FAO Fishery Resources and Environment Division,under the supervision of Dr W. Fischer, editor of the FAO Species Identification Programme. The indexes of scientific and common international FAO species names and of local species names were prepared in collaboration with FAO% Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Service. ABSTRACT This is the second in a series of species catalogues produced in the framework of a worldwide annotated and illustrated inventory of aquatic food species FAO intends to build up. The present volume covers all 49 species of scombrids known so far. It provides a comprehensive key to genera and species, preceeded by an illustrated glossary of technical terms and measurements. The systematic part of the catalogue includes a drawing and a distribution map for each species, a list of scientific and vernacular species names and wide-ranging information on habitat, biology, and fisheries. Ample reference is made to pertinent literature. Distribution : For bibliographic purposes this document should be quoted as follows : Authors FAO Fisheries Department Collette, B.B. and C.E. Nauen, FAO species FAO Regional Fisheries Officers 1983, catalogue. Vol. 2. Scombrids of the Regional Fisheries Councils world. An annotated and illustrated and Commissions catalogue of tunas, mackerels, Selector SM bonitos and related species known to date. FAO Fish.Synop., (125)Vol.. 2: 137 p. - v - FOREWORD This publication is the second in a series of worldwide species catalogues produced by FAO. The series was initiated in 1980 with the publication of “Shrimps and Prawns of the World”, by L.B. Holthuis, and will be continued, in the near future, with similar catalogues for other groups of major interest to fisheries. The present catalogue represents FAO's first attempt toward a world- wide annotated and illustrated inventory of all representatives of the family Scombridae. It is aimed primarily at individual workers and institutions concerned with scombrid fisheries. Apart from representing a coded inventory of scientific and standardized vernacular names, it is a source of wide-ranging information by species on basic systematics, geographical distribution, habitat, biology and fisheries. Future updating and expansion of this information is considered essential, and with this in mind, FAO is developing a computerized data base by families and species which will allow easy storage of information and periodic updated outputs. We strongly encourage users of the catalogue to participate in keeping this document up-to-date, thus rendering it more useful by providing us with new information. All suggestions and additional information should be sent to the editor of the series, Dr W. Fischer. Problems concerning species identifications should be addressed to the senior author. Further species catalogues currently in preparation under the FAO/ UNDP Project on Survey and Identification of World-Marine Fish Resources include, among others, sharks, cephalopods, billfishes, cods/hakes, snappers, herrings, sardines/anchovies, left-eye flounders and lobsters. Armin Lindquist Director Fishery Resources and Environment Division Fisheries Department click for next page click for previous page - vii - SCOMBRIDS OF THE WORLD TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Plan of the Catalogue 2 1.2 General Remarks on Scombrids 3 6 1.3 Illustrated Glossary of Technical Terms and Measurements 2. SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE 10 2.1 Illustrated Key to Genera and Species of Scombridae 10 25 2.2 Information by Species Acanthocybium 25 Allothunnus 26 Auxis 27 Cybiosarda 31 Euthynnus 32 Gasterochisma 37 Grammatorcynus 38 Gymnosarda 40 Katsuwonus 42 Orcynopsis 44 Rastrelliger 46 Sarda 49 Scomber 55 Scomberomorus 59 Thunnus 80 95 3. LIST OF SPECIES BY MAJOR FISHING AREAS 101 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY 5. INDEX OF SCIENTIFIC AND INTERNATIONAL FAO NAMES 119 129 6. INDEX OF LOCAL NAMES click for next page click for previous page - 1 - 1. INTRODUCTION This catalogue covers all of the 49 scombrid species presently known,irrespective of their current commercial importance. It is based primarily on information from literature,and this has led inevitably to a certain unbalance in the species accounts. In fact, while there is a wealth of information on the economically important mackerels and tunas, the literature available on the less common species of Spanish mackerels is rather scarce. Sometimes it is difficult to evaluate the reliability of published data, particularly in cases where the identity of the species referred to is doubtful. Moreover, the discovery of new species, the more accurate delimitation of known species, and even the introduction of nomenclatorial changes, have caused confusion and have led to the use of scientific names that are incorrect by modern standards, or apply to more than one species. Although great care was exercised in selecting the published information used in the catalogue, some misjudgements and incorrect interpretations have undoubtedly occurred. In order to avoid cluttering the text with literature citations, every effort was made to restrict these to papers considered of specific relevance to the species in question. Many others, particularly on systematics, anatomy, distribution and the more general aspects of biology and fisheries,have been included only in the bibliography. Attention is drawn to the existence of rather comprehensive, even if often outdated bibliographies on this group or on parts of it, e.g. Corwin (1930), Shimada (1951), volume 4 of the ‘Proceedings of the World Scientific Meeting on the Biology of Tunas and Related Species’ (Bernabei, ed., 1964), LeGall (1981), and the annotated bibliography on eggs and juveniles by Richards & Klawe (1972). For more detailed information, particularly on tuna and mackerel stocks and their fisheries, the reader is referred to specialized periodical publications, such as the ‘Bulletin’ and the ‘Annual Reports’ of the Inter-Ameritan Tropical Tuna Commission (La Jolla), the ‘Collective Volume of Scientific Papers’ of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Madrid), and the ‘Fisheries Newsletters and Reports of the Skipjack Survey and Assessment Programme’ of the South Pacific Commission (Noumea). Recent comprehensive papers on certain groups of scombrids include Manooch, Nakamura & Hall (1978) on four Atlantic species of Scomberomorus, Yoshida (1979) on little tunas (Euthynnus), Yoshida (1980) on bonitos (Sarda), Uchida (1981) on frigate tunas (Auxis), and Collette & Russo (ms) on the Spanish mackerels (Scomberomorus). Species synopses are individually quoted in the text where relevant. Illustrations were adapted and redrawn by Mr Paolo Lastrico, FAO (Rome), from a wide variety of sources, especially primary systematic literature. Most figures of Spanish mackerels were drawn from specimens by Ms Keiko Hiratsuka Moore of the NMFS Systematics Laboratory (Washington, D.C.). Acknowledgements The authors and the editor wish to express their thanks to all those who have contributed to the preparation of this catalogue, and in particular to Drs W.L. Klawe, I-ATTC, La Jolla, California; A.D. Lewis,