OBSERVATIONS ON FISHES ASSOCIATED WITH THE 1997-98 EL NINO OFF CALIFORNIA

From mid-1997 through 1998, anomalously warm water occurred off the California coast as part of the more global El Niiio phenomenon of 1997-98. Warmwater periods of comparable magnitude were observed in 1957-59 and 1982-84; this most recent event may in fact be the strongest of the three. Biological evidence supporting the impact of this phenomenon was noted in a northern latitudinal shift in the range of a number of eastern tropical Pacific fishes into the warni-temperate waters of southern California. Families of fishes represented include Carcharhinidae, Sphyrnidae, Elopidae, Albulidae, Ophichthidae, Clupeidae, Synodontidae, Fistulariidae, Scorpaenidae, Triglidae, Serranidae, Apogonidae, Carangidae, Lobotidae, Mulbdae, Chaetodontidae, Pomacanthidae, Pomacentridae, Sphyraenidae, Polynemidae, Labridae, Scaridae, Blenniidae, Callionymidae, Gobiidae, Trichiuridae, Bothidae, Tetraodontidae, and Diodontidae. Of particular significance are the following new California records of Panamic species: Fistularia covneta, deepwater cornetfish; Diplectvum maximum, greater sand perch; Apogon paclficus, pink cardinalfish; Caranx vinctus, cocinero; Sphyraena ensis, Mexican barracuda; Decodon melasma, blackspot wrasse; Nicholsina denticulata, loosetooth parrotfish; Plagiotremus azaleus, sabertooth blenny; Synchiropus atrilabiatus, blacklip dragonet; and Engyophrys sanctilaurentii, speckled-tail flounder. Several species taken had not been reported since the Pacific Railroad Survey of the 1850s or the early 1900s (e.g., threebanded butterflyfish and longtail goby). Addtionally, several species heretofore known from single or a few records were taken on multiple occasions and in some numbers. Differences between the 1997-98 and previous El Niiio events and a measure of the intensity of this event are discussed. Changes in the ichthyofauna of California during the most recent El Niiio were perhaps the most dramatic of the twentieth century.