checklist (pdf) - The Love Lab - University of California, Santa Barbara

Order Elopiformes
Family Elopidae —Tenpounders
Elops affinis Regan, 1909. Machete or Pacific Ladyfish. To 91.4 cm (3 ft) TL (Miller and Lea 1972). Mandalay
Beach, southern California (Eschmeyer and Herald 1983) to Talara, Peru (Chirichigno and Vélez 1998),
including Gulf of California (Whitehead and Rodriguez-Sanchez in Fischer et al. 1995). Shallow marine
waters, frequently enters fresh water (Allen and Robertson 1994) to 10 m (33 ft; Robertson and Allen 2002).
Order Albuliformes
Family Albulidae — Bonefishes
Albula sp. Cortez Bonefish. To about 36 cm (14.4 in) SL. San Francisco, northern California, along west coast
of Baja California, and into the Gulf of California. Southern range limit is unknown. Nearshore waters.
Previously referred to as Albula vulpes. Work by Pfeiler (1996) and Pfeiler et al. (2002) suggests there are
a number of undescribed bonefish species in the eastern Pacific. A species referred to as “Albula sp. A” by
Pfeiler and coworkers is found along the Pacific coast of North America and in the Gulf of California.
See Nelson et al. (2004) for discussion of molecular studies and nomenclature.
Dixonina sp. Shafted Bonefish. A poorly described member of this genus appears to live along the southern
west coast of Baja California and in the southern Gulf of California (Pfeiler 1996).
Family Halosauridae — Halosaurs
Unidentified Aldrovandia. Two halosaurs, as yet unidentified to species, were caught in 2004 off the west
coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, including one very near the Alaska border (G. E.
Gillespie, pers. comm. to C.W.M.). Halosaurs pursue a benthopelagic lifestyle in deep waters, usually
over continental slopes. Perhaps the most likely species is: Aldrovandia affinis (Günther, 1977). Gilbert’s
Halosaur. To about 55 cm (21.7 in) TL (Sulak in Quéro et al. 1990). Circumglobal, including cold waters
off New England in the western North Atlantic (Moore et al. 2003); in North Pacific, off the Korean
Peninsula (Youn 2002) and Japan (Shinohara et al. 1996, 2001; Nakabo 2002). Benthopelagic, about
730–2,200 m (2,395–7,218 ft; Sulak in Quéro et al. 1990). Another possiblity is Aldrovandia phalacra
(Vaillant, 1888), also probably circumglobal including cold waters, such as off Greenland (Okamura and
Takahashi in Okamura et al. 1995), and including the North Pacific Ocean off Hawaii (Sulak in Quéro
et al. 1990).
Family Notacanthidae —Spiny Eels
Notacanthus chemnitzii Bloch, 1788. Snubnosed Spiny Eel. To more than 135 cm (54 in) TL (Mecklenburg
et al. 2002). Probably circumglobal; Greenland (Okamura and Takahashi in Okamura et al. 1995); Japan
(Yabe in Amaoka et al. 1983); Sea of Okhotsk (Orlov 1998); near Alaska off Dixon Entrance, northern
British Columbia (G. E. Gillespie, pers. comm. to C W. M.); Oregon (Peden 1976); Point Sur and edge
of Monterey Submarine Canyon, central California (Lea and Rosenblatt 1987) to Chile (Pequeño 1989).
Benthopelagic, at depths of 128–3,285 m (413–10,775 ft) (min.: McDowell 1973; max.: Yabe in Amaoka
et al. 1983); usually taken at the greater depths (Mecklenburg et al. 2002).
Polyacanthonotus challengeri (Vaillant, 1888). Longnose Tapirfish. To about 60 cm (23.6 in) TL (Gon in Gon
and Heemstra 1990). Circumglobal, predominantly antitropical, on the continental rise; northern Japan
Sea off Hokkaido (Yabe in Amaoka et al. 1983) and western North Pacific off southern Honshu (Crabtree
et al. 1985) to southern Bering Sea (Mecklenburg et al. 2002) to Cape Falcon, Oregon (Stein and Butler
1971). Benthopelagic, at 830–3,753 m (2,723–12,313 ft) (min.: ZIN 45805; max.: Sulak et al. 1984).
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