UC San Diego Library – Scripps Digital Collection

The eggs and larvae of very few marine fishes of this coast have been described. Many fish eggs remain unidentified so that each description narrows the field of unknowns, and by elimination assists in further identifications. In the present work the eggs and larvae of six species are described: our most important flatfish, three turbots and two cottids. The first species, the pointed-nosed sole, makes up half of the State's commercial catch of flatfishes with an average take of about five and a half million pounds. The next three species considered are the so-called turbots of the genus Pleuronichthys, which are highly prized food fishes, accounting for a catch in this State of roughly 75,000 pounds per year. The two cottids are not utilized commercially.