Presence of Roes in New Zealand Marlin Swordfishes

Abstract

In view of the scarcity of data on the breeding of marlin swordfishes, the following note may, perhaps, be of interest. Swordfishing has been a popular sport in this locality, the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, since 1911. Yet in spite of the fact that many fishermen and scientific workers have examined the fish caught, primarily to distinguish the sexes and, if possible, discover secondary sexual characters, no swordfish with ovaries containing roe had been discovered. With the view of increasing our knowledge of the breeding habits of these fish, I examined systematically a number of them, and on February 28 of this year dissected a Striped marlin, Makaira (Tetrapturus) mitsukurii, Jordan and Snyder, weighing 238 lb., which contained well-filled, firm ovaries measuring approximately 37 cm. in length and 5.5 cm. in diameter in the widest part. The ova were separate and measured 0.004 inches. On April 3, I examined the roes of another Striped marlin of similar proportions. These fish seemed to exhibit no outstanding sexual characteristics.