Peprilus simillimus

Peprilus simillimus (Ayres, 1860).

Pacific Butterfish or Pacific Pompano. To about 36 cm (14.2 in) TL (Robertson and Allen 2015). Haida Gwaii, British Columbia (Clemens and Wilby 1961) to southern Baja California (23°24.6’N, 110°13.8’W) (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California), and Gulf of California (Miller and Lea 1972). Depth: intertidal (Carlisle et al. 1960) to an uncertain maximum depth. We are unsure about the maximum depth attained by this species. The deepest depth in which this species has been directly observed (from a remotely operated vehicle) was 302 m (991 ft) (Joshua Smith, pers. comm to M.L. expanding on data in Smith and Lindholm 2016); thus a capture depth derived from a bottom trawl of 311 m (1,026 ft) (NWFSC-FRAM) is likely accurate. However, the NWFSC-FRAM database also contains bottom trawl catch records of 464 m (1,522 ft), 466 m (1,528 ft), and 550 m (1,804 ft). The problem is that it is unknown to what extent this nominally benthic species also occupies midwaters—thus potentially making it available to nets during deployment or retrieval.