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Dolphinfish, Coryphaena hippurus, are epipelagic predators and have a cosmopolitan tropical to warm-temperate (>20 °C) distribution. This species is an important bycatch of the artisanal and commercial fisheries that operate in Mexican Pacific waters, however little information about their movements in this area is known. During two cruises made 28 September to 6 October 2010 and 25 September to 3 October 2011, we tagged 62 males (66- to 109-cm fork length) and 77 females (69- to 102-cm fork length) using 139 ¨spaghetti¨ type conventional tags and 10 miniPAT tags. Although the 10 pop-up tags were programmed to detach three months after their deployment, the maximum retention time recorded was 39 days. The transmitted summary of depth data for all tags combined shows that dolphinfish spent most of each day in waters shallower than 15 meters. The deeper depths generally occurred during short-term diving. The surface waters where they spent their time were warmer than 22 °C. The colder temperatures recorded were during the deep diving. Numerous deep dives to 100 meters or more were recorded. During the following two months after the fish were tagged with the conventional tags north off Bahia Magdalena (25.24, 112.78) in 2011, five tagged fish were recaptured, two off the Sinaloa coast (ca. 100-km south of released location), two off the Nayarit coast, and one off the Jalisco coast (ca. 300-km south of the released position), which suggests this species moves southward during Autumn. The movements of the dolphinfish seem to be related to the movement of the ocean currents present in the study area.

Palabras clave: Tagging; Dolphinfish; migration; vertical depth

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