Resource Inventory of Marine and Estuarine Fishes of the West Coast and Alaska: A Checklist of North Pacific and Arctic Ocean Species from Baja California to the Alaska–Yukon Border OCS Study MMS 2005-030 and USGS/NBII 2005-001 Project Cooperation This research addressed an information need identified Milton S. Love by the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center and the Marine Science Institute University of California, Santa Barbara to the Department University of California of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service, Pacific Santa Barbara, CA 93106 OCS Region, Camarillo, California. The resource inventory [email protected] information was further supported by the USGS’s National www.id.ucsb.edu/lovelab Biological Information Infrastructure as part of its ongoing aquatic GAP project in Puget Sound, Washington. Catherine W. Mecklenburg T. Anthony Mecklenburg Report Availability Pt. Stephens Research Available for viewing and in PDF at: P. O. Box 210307 http://wfrc.usgs.gov Auke Bay, AK 99821 http://far.nbii.gov [email protected] http://www.id.ucsb.edu/lovelab Lyman K. Thorsteinson Printed copies available from: Western Fisheries Research Center Milton Love U. S. Geological Survey Marine Science Institute 6505 NE 65th St. University of California, Santa Barbara Seattle, WA 98115 Santa Barbara, CA 93106 [email protected] (805) 893-2935 June 2005 Lyman Thorsteinson Western Fisheries Research Center Much of the research was performed under a coopera- U. S. Geological Survey tive agreement between the USGS’s Western Fisheries 6505 NE 65th St. Research Center and the University of California, Santa Seattle, WA 98115 Barbara (CA 03WRAG007). (206) 526-6569 Front Cover: (from upper right): Rock Sole, Lepidopsetta Minerals Management Service bilineata, Janna Nichols; Crescent Gunnel, Pholis laeta, Pacific OCS Region Janna Nichols; Bocaccio, Sebastes paucispinis, Milton 770 Paseo Camarillo Love; Whale Shark, Rhincodon typus, Phillip Cola; Grunt Camarillo, CA 99010 Sculpin, Rhamphocottus richardsonii, Ken Blauvelt; (805) 389-7800 Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker, Eumicrotremus orbis, Ken Blauvelt; Guineafowl Puffer, Arothron meleagris, Phillip Suggested Citation Cola; Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola, Phillip Cola Love, M. S., C. W. Mecklenburg, T. A. Mecklenburg, and L. K. Thorsteinson. 2005. Resource Inventory of Marine Back Cover: Sargo, Anisotremus davidsonii, Phillip Cola and Estuarine Fishes of the West Coast and Alaska: A Checklist of North Pacific and Arctic Ocean Species Page iv: Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola, Phillip Cola from Baja California to the Alaska–Yukon Border. U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, Page x: Bigeye Trevally, Caranx sexfasciatus, Phillip Cola Biological Resources Division, Seattle, Washington, 98104, OCS Study MMS 2005-030 and USGS/NBII 2005-001. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments v Introduction vi Species List 1 References Cited 182 Personal Communications 222 Index 224 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This West Coast inventory would not have been possible without the technical support and assistance of many, many individuals and organizations. We cannot express our appreciation enough to all involved for their efforts and contributions to this scientific endeavor. The inventory provides relevant benchmarks to our understanding of the biological diversity of fishes in some of the Nation’s most important marine and estuarine ecosystems. We were graciously provided with a substantial amount of unpublished fish data and helpful commentary, advice, and peer review by Alisa Abookire, Larry Allen, M. Eric Anderson, Yumi Arimitsu, Joe Bizarro, Morgan S. Busby, Greg Cailliet, Jay Carroll, Howard Chang, Sharon Charter, Natalia V. Chernova, Dave Clausen, Brian Coad, Matthew Craig, Allen Cramer, David J. Csepp, John Cusick, David A. Ebert, William N. Eschmeyer, V. V. Fedorov, Jared Figurski, John E. Fitch, Nora Foster, Robin Gartman, Graham E. Gillespie, Ami Groce, Dana Haggarty, Jeff Harding, Karsten Hartel, Tim Herrlinger, Eric Hessell, Jerry Hoff, Brenda A. Holladay, Lee B. Hulbert, Dan Jehl, Scott Johnson, Jackie King, Gene Kira, Paul Krause, David Kushner, Tom Laidig, Robert N. Lea, Charles Lean, Scott Matern, John E. McCosker, Laird McDonald, Ann C. Matarese, Melissa Meeker, H. Geoffrey Moser, Joseph S. Nelson, Mary Nishimoto, Steve Norton, Victoria M. O’Connell, James W. Orr, John O’Sullivan, Michelle Paddock, Wayne A. Palsson, Don Pearson, Alex E. Peden, William J. Poly, Dan Pondella, Rebecca Reuter, Dan Richards, Tyson Roberts, Ross Robertson, Jorge Rosales Casian, David Roseneau, Mike Schaadt, Donna Schroeder, Mark Schroeder, Mike Shane, Boris A. Sheiko, Jeff Siegel, David G. Smith, Wade Smith, David L. Stein, John Stephens, Duane E. Stevenson, Adam P. Summers,Tierney Thys, Vanessa Tuttle, Chuck Valle, William van Orden, Neville Venables, Eric Vetter, Kenneth D. Vogt, Diana Watters, Mark Wilkins, Nick Wilsman, Carrie Worton, Tina Wyllie Echeverria, and Mary Yoklavich. Some of our colleagues were consistently helpful throughout a number of years and we are extremely grateful for their patience and willingness to donate their time and expertise. We are also no less appreciative of those who provided occasional but valuable data and information about this important fauna. We gratefully acknowledge the tireless museum personnel and specialists who worked with us in making specimens available and assisting in their examination. We thank Richard Feeney, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (LACM collection); Phil Hastings, Cynthia Klepadio, Richard Rosenblatt, and H. J. Walker, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO); and Boris A. Sheiko, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (ZIN). Also we thank the museum personnel who graciously hosted us during our research visits and for their ready and on- the-spot assistance to us during the course of this project. In addition to those individuals identified above, we acknowledge the technical assistance and support of Bruce L. Wing, NOAA Fisheries, Auke Bay Biological Laboratory (AB); William N. Eschmeyer, Jon Fong, Tomio Iwamoto, and William J. Poly at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS); Gordon Haas at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum (UAM); Bruce B. Collette, Susan Jewett, David G. Smith, and Jeffrey T. Williams at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Division of Fishes (USNM); and Katherine Pearson Maslenikov and Theodore W. Pietsch at the University of Washington School of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (UW). Alex E. Peden and Kelly Sendall confirmed collection information and diagnostic characters on specimens held at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, B.C. (RBCM). Karsten Hartel provided specimen records from the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (MCZ); and Brian Coad from the National Museums of Canada in Ottawa (NMC). Finally, we thank Tim Thomas, Maritime Museum of Monterey for giving us permission and access to the unpublished records of Julius Phillips. Projects of the geographic size and taxonomic scale of this inventory require tremendous library support. Our work would not have been successful without the cheerful assistance of Interlibrary Loan personnel at the University of California, Santa Barbara and University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau. Many hard-to-find documents were made available to us through their efforts for which we are especially grateful. Similarly, we thank Joan Parker, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, for her work in finding many obscure but relevant publications. Sponsorship The U.S. Geological Survey and the Minerals Management Service provided funding for the inventory. Much of the research was performed under a cooperative agreement between the USGS’s Western Fisheries Research Center and the University of California at Santa Barbara (CA 03WRAG007). We thank William Walker (Biological Resources Division) and Fred Piltz (Minerals Management Service) for their interest and support. Additional USGS funding was provided to the Western Fisheries Research Center by the USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure v in support of the Estuarine GAP Analysis for Puget Sound. We thank Doug Beard, John Mosseso, and Gladys Cotter of the NBII for their scientific interest and support of regional checklists and work toward synthesis and improved understanding of animal habitat relationships. Additional funding for fieldwork in Alaska was provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Catherine W. Mecklenburg extends her special thanks to Vernon Byrd and Don Dragoo, USF&WS, Homer, Alaska, for their assistance in allowing her to participate in resource surveys of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge units in Norton Sound, the Aleutian Islands, and Semidi Islands. Also, our appreciation to John Calder and Kathy Crane of NOAA for their support of Catherine’s participation in long-term research of Arctic climate change in the Chukchi Sea through the Russian-American (RUSALCA) expedition in 2004. Design We thank Roberta Bloom, University of California, Santa Barbara, for the design and layout. INTRODUCTION This is a comprehensive inventory of the fish species recorded in marine and estuarine waters between the Alaska–Yukon Territory border in the Beaufort Sea and Cabo San Lucas at the southern end of Baja California and out about 300 miles from shore. Our westernmost range includes the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. In addition, we have also included our best impressions of the species that might reasonably