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60 NORTHWESTERN NATURALIST HAZLITT SL, GASTON AJ. 2003. Black Oystercatcher natal philopatry in the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Wilson Bulletin 114:520–522. NYSEWANDER D. 1977. Reproductive success of the Black Oystercatcher in Washington state [thesis]. Seattle, WA: University of Washington. 71 p. SULLIVAN TM, HAZLITT SL, LEMON MJF. 2003. Population trends of nesting Glaucous-winged Gulls, Larus glaucescens, in the southern Strait of Georgia, British Columbia. Canadian Field-Naturalist 116:564–567. VERMEER K, MORGAN KH., SMITH GEJ. 1989. Population and nesting habitat of American Black Oystercatchers in the Strait of Georgia. In: Vermeer, K and Butler RW, editors. The ecology and status of marine and shoreline birds in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia. Ottawa, ON: Occasional Paper Number 75, Canadian Wildlife Service. p 118–122. NORTHWESTERN NATURALIST 89(1) VERMEER K, EWINS P J, M ORGAN KH, S MITH GEJ. 1992. Population and nesting habitat of American Black Oystercatchers on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In: Vermeer K, Butler RW, editors. The ecology and status of marine and shoreline birds on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Ottawa, ON: Occasional Paper 75, Canadian Wildlife Service. p 65–70. WOOTTON JT 1992. Indirect effects, prey susceptibility, and habitat selection: impacts of birds on limpets and algae. Ecology 73:981–991. Pacific WildLife Foundation, Reed Point Marina, 850 Barnet Highway, Port Moody, British Columbia, V3H 1V6 Canada; [email protected] (RWB); Parks Canada, 2220 Harbour Road, Sidney, British Columbia V8L 2P6 Canada (TEG). Submitted 8 March 2007, accepted 27 August 2007. Corresponding Editor: RL Hoffman. SPRING 2008 89:60–62 FIRST RECORD OF AN ALBINO CHIMAERIFORM FISH, HYDROLAGUS COLLIEI JONATHAN CP REUM, CAROLINE E PAULSEN, THEODORE W PIETSCH, SANDRA L PARKER-STETTER Key words: Spotted Ratfish, Hydrolagus colliei, Chondrichthyes, albino, Puget Sound, marine fish Albinism is a genetically inherited condition in which the pigment protein melanin is either absent or nonfunctional. Mutations that affect enzymes involved in the metabolism of melanin can inhibit production, resulting in either partial or complete loss of coloration. Among teleost fishes, albino individuals have been reported in numerous species. In a few notable populations that have evolved in subterranean environments, relaxation of selective pressures against albinism has led to the propagation and fixation of genes associated with the condition (Wilkens and Strecker 2003; Protas and others 2006). Talent (1973) noted a greater number of albinos among teleosts than in chondrichthyans and suggested that this difference might be the result of a lower propensity for al- AND binism in chondrichthyans. Or if the frequency of albinism is the same between fish groups, the lower abundance of chondrichthyans relative to teleosts may decrease the probability of observing an albino (Bottaro and others 2005). Of the chondrichthyan albinos observed, reports have been restricted to rays (Joseph 1961; Schwartz and Safrit 1977; Brahim and others 1998; Souissi and others 2007) and sharks (McKenzie 1970; Talent 1973; Smale and Heemstra 1997; Teixeira and de Araujo 2002), and until now no record of an albino chimaeriform has been reported. The order Chimaeriformes is composed of 33 extant species and may include as many as 8 additional species that are known but have not yet been formally described (Didier 2004). Ratfish are distinguished primarily in having hypermineralized non-replaceable tooth plates and a single gill opening on each side of the SPRING 2008 GENERAL NOTES 61 FIGURE 1. Spotted Ratfish, Hydrolagus colliei, female, 33 cm total length captured off Whidbey Island, Puget Sound (specimen ID: UW 115754). Left: Moments after capture (photo by CE Paulsen). Right: Just prior to fixation (photo by TW Pietsch). head (Hart 1973; Didier 2004). In Puget Sound, Spotted Ratfish (Hydrolagus colliei) are the most abundant bottomfish, constituting approximately half of the bottomfish biomass (Palsson and others 2005). Individuals are typically dark brown to grey along the dorsal surface and have a variable number of white spots. On 17 June 2007 we captured 1 female albino Spotted Ratfish measuring 33 cm total length (Fig. 1), 0.8 km east of Whidbey Island, Washington (UTM coordinates E 459 506 m, N 5306 754 m), using a 400-mesh Eastern otter trawl lined with 3.2-cm mesh in the codend. The trawl was deployed from the University of Washington R/V Centennial. The net had a headrope length of 21.4 m and a footrope length of 28.7 m and was towed for approximately 400 m along the 100-m isobath. Upon capture the female was placed in a container with flowing seawater. Despite these efforts, the specimen expired 5 h later and was subsequently frozen at ⫺30⬚C. In September, the specimen was thawed and fixed using 10% formalin and preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol. The specimen was archived in the University of Washington Fish Collection (UW 115754). Because coastal waters of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia possess only 1 species of chimaeriform (Hart 1973), identification of the specimen as H. colliei was unambiguous. However, to verify that the specimen was not a vagrant Harriotta raleighana (Narrownose Chimaera), which typically occupies deep waters south of Southern California, we confirmed the specimen’s identity using the taxonomic key of Didier (2004). The albino form of H. colliei differs from pigmented conspecifics in striking ways. Typical- ly, H. colliei has light green eyes, a dark dorsal surface with prominent white spots, and dark grey to brown pectoral and dorsal fins. In the albino, pectoral and dorsal fins are translucent along the edge and become increasingly opaque towards the body. The dorsal surface is white, with faint textural differences in the skin demarcating a spot pattern, and the eyes are red (Fig. 1). This specimen was captured in a bottomtrawl survey of marine fish distributions in Puget Sound. Over a period of 4 mo from June to September 2007, the catch from 72 hauls in the region included 19,938 Spotted Ratfish (CEP, unpubl. data). In addition, bottom-trawl surveys performed in fall of 2004, and spring and summer 2005 resulted in the capture of an additional 12,188 Spotted Ratfish (JCPR, unpubl. data), suggesting that albinism in ratfish is at least 1 in 33,000 but likely much more rare. The lack of coloration in albinos has been suggested to increase susceptibility to predation (Dawson 1967), and it is probable that known predators of ratfish such as the Spiny Dogfish (Squalus acanthias) and Six-gill Shark (Hexanchus griseus; Hart 1973) detect albino ratfish with greater ease. Acknowledgments.—Field work was performed by TE Essington, D Barbee, M Anderson, B Grubb, A Galloway, B Lee, and D Duggins. LITERATURE CITED BOTTARO M, F ERRANDO S, GALLUS L, GIROSI L, VACCHI M. 2005. First record of albinism in the deep water shark Dalatias licha. Reference No. 5115. JMBA2—Biodiversity Records available at http://www.mba.ac.uk/jmba/ jmba2biodiversityrecords.php). BRAHIM BR, SECK AA, AND CAPAPE C. 1998. Albi- 62 NORTHWESTERN NATURALIST nism in a Common Torpedo, Torpedo (Torpedo) torpedo. Cybium 22:83–86. DAWSON CE. 1967. Three new records of partial albinism in American Hetersomata. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 96:400–404. DIDIER DA. 2004. Phylogeny and Classification of Extant Holocephali. In: Carrier JC, Musick JA, Heithaus MR, editors. Biology of Sharks and Their Relatives. New York, NY: CRC Press. 596 p. HART JL. 1973. Pacific Fishes of Canada. Bulletin of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 180. 720 p. JOSEPH EB. 1961. An albino Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera Bonasus (Mitchill) from Chesapeake Bay. Copeia 1961: 482–483. MCKENZIE MD. 1970. First record of albinism in the Hammerhead Shark, Sphyrna lewini (Pisces, Sphyrnidae). Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 86:35–37. PALSSON WA, HOFFMANN S, CLARKE P, B EAM J. 2005. Results from the 2001 transboundary trawl survey of the southern Strait of Georgia, San Juan Archipelago and adjacent waters. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. 109 p. PROTAS ME, HERSEY C, KOCHANEK D, ZHOU Y, WILKENS H, J EFFERY WR, Z ON LI, BOROWSKY R, T ABIN J. 2006. Genetic analysis of cavefish reveals molecular convergence in the evolution of albinism. Nature Genetics 38:107–111 SCHWARTZ FJ, SAFRIT GW. 1977. White Southern Stingray, Dasyatis americana (Pisces, Dasyatidae), 89(1) from Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. Chesapeake Science 18:83–84. SMALE MJ, HEEMSTRA PC. 1997. First record of albinism in the Great White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Linneaus, 1758). South African Journal of Science 93:243–245. SOUISSI BJ, GOLANI D, M EJRI H, SALEM MB, CAPAPE C. 2007. First confirmed record of the Halave’s Guitarfish, Rhinobatos halavi (Forsskal, 1775) (Chondrichthyes: Rhinobatidae) in the Mediterranean Sea with a description of a case of albinism in elasmobranchs. Cahiers De Biologie Marine 48:67–75. TALENT LG. 1973. Albinism in embryo Gray SmoothHound Sharks, Mustelus californicus, from Elkhorn Slough, Monterey Bay, California. Copeia 1973:595–597. TEIXEIRA SF, DE ARAUJO MLG. 2002. First record of albinism in the Smooth Dogfish Mustelus schimitti Springer, 1939 (Carcharhiniformes—Triakidae) from Southern Brazil. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology 45:241–243. WILKENS H, STRECKER U. 2003. Convergent evolution of the cavefish Astyanax (Characidae, Teleostei): genetic evidence from reduced eye-size and pigmentation. Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 80:545–554. School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Box 355020, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 USA. Submitted 23 October 2007, accepted 26 October 2007. Corresponding Editor: James Orr.