Notable species include the blue tang, an electric purple and blue specimen; the strange looking bluespotted cornetfish, possessing a mouth fully one third the length of its body; and the striped burrfish, a species related to blow fish, with a body that has the wonderful pattern of a child's discovery maze.
They had caught several hundred specimens of snowy and red hind groupers, spotfin butterflyfish, bluespotted cornetfish, and crevalle jack; a single trunkfish and red goatfish; and a number of fish that go by the name of permit.
I report here on several sightings in southern California of the reef cornetfish, Fistularia commersonii Riippell, 1838.
Three cornetfish species live in the Pacific Ocean: Fistularia commersonii Riippell, 1838, reef cornetfish; Fistularia cometa Gilbert & Starks, 1904, deepwater cornetfish; and Fistularia petimba Lacepede, 1803, red cornetfish.
On 7 May 1998, two small cornetfish (319 and 345 mm total length) were taken from the cooling water screenwell in front of the circulating water gates at the former Southern California Edison's Huntington Beach Generating Station (now ABS Huntington Beach) during a routine fouling control operation.
Pacific cornetfish typically are taken over smooth bottoms (Fritzche 1976) and are referred to as the deepwater cornetfish in the Gulf of California, as they typically occur in water depths greater than 30 m (Thomson et al.
In Pacific cornetfish there is a wide smooth interorbital space, whereas longitudinal ridges are found in this same area in reef cornetfish.
Although it appears this cornetfish species may have a preference for slightly cooler waters found at depth, it is not unusual to find expatriate fishes from Baja California attracted to the vicinity of southern California power plant discharges.
Meristics of the two Huntington Beach specimens of Pacific cornetfish, Fistularia corneta, LACM 54542-1 Specimen 1 2 Total Length (mm) End or Filament 345 319 Biomass (g) 20 14 Dorsal, Fin Rays 18 18 Anal, Fin Rays 17 17 Pectoral, Fin Rays 17 18
