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What are the maximum size and live body coloration of opah (Teleostei: Lampridae: Lampris species)?

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Abstract

Validity of the largest size accounts is not well documented and most published accounts of body coloration describe dead specimens lacking scales instead of the color of freshly caught opah. Maximum length is at least 163 cm fork length and maximum weight about 89 kg. The body color of fresh specimens is vermilion with white spots.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

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Acknowledgments

We thank C.Y. Tokita, W.A. Walsh, B.C. Mundy and M.P. Seki of the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center for their data and editorial assistance, R.H. Rosenblatt of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, J.G. Pepperell of Pepperell Research & Consulting Pty Ltd., and R.N. Lea of the California Academy of Sciences, Department of Ichthyology for their reviews and comments, G. Duhamel and A. Prudor for Fig. 2, and G.D. Johnson and V.G. Springer of the National Museum of Natural History for their help interpreting the opah figure included in Jordan’s papers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, HI, 96822-2396, USA

    Donald R. Hawn

  2. National Marine Fisheries Service Systematics Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 20560, USA

    Bruce B. Collette

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  1. Donald R. Hawn
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  2. Bruce B. Collette
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Correspondence to Donald R. Hawn.

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Hawn, D.R., Collette, B.B. What are the maximum size and live body coloration of opah (Teleostei: Lampridae: Lampris species)?. Ichthyol Res 59, 272–275 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-012-0277-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-012-0277-z

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