Preliminary Report on the Marquesan Sardine, Harengula vittata, in Hawaii

Abstract

The Marquesan sardine, Harengula vittata, was introduced to Hawaiian waters in eight plantings from 1955 through 1959 by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in an attempt to establish this species as a supplementary bait fish for skipjack fishing. The details of the first seven introductions have been reported by Murphy (1960) and the eighth by Brock (1960). The eighth introduction comprised an estimated 4,000 sardines ranging from 7.0 to 9.4 cm in standard length and averaging 8.2 cm. This brought the estimated total number of sardines introduced to Hawaii to 144,000. All of the releases have been made around the island of Oahu (Fig. 1).