Melichthys niger

Melichthys niger (Bloch, 1786). Black Durgon or Black Triggerfish. To 51 cm (20 in) TL (Eschmeyer and Herald 1983). Circumglobal; western Pacific Ocean north to Ryukyu Islands, Japan (Hayashi in Nakabo 2002); San Diego, southern California to southern Gulf of California (Robertson and Allen 2002), Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia (Robertson and Allen 2015), and Ecuador, including Islas Gal��pagos (Grove and Lavenberg 1997). Not confirmed north of Mexico since it was reported off San Diego in the 1800s (Miller and Lea 1972, Eschmeyer and Herald 1983). A report of this fish from Metlatkatla, Alaska (Karinen et al. 1985), represents a misidentified Balistes polylepis Steindachner, 1876 (Mecklenburg et al. 2002). Benthic; depth: surface to 75 m (246 ft) (min.: Lieske and Myers 2002; max.: Matsuura in Carpenter and Niem 2001).
Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 223, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008
{"references":["Eschmeyer, W. N. & Herald, E. S. (1983) A Field Guide to Pacific Coast Fishes of North America from the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.","Nakabo, T. (Ed.). (2002) Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Robertson, D. R. & Allen, G. R. (2002) Shorefishes of the tropical eastern Pacific: an information system. CD-ROM. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama.","Robertson, D. R. and Allen, G. R. (2015) Shorefishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific: an Information System. Version 2.0 (2008). Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa. http: // biogeodb. stri. si. edu / sftep / en / pages","Grove, J. S. & Lavenberg, R. J. (1997) The Fishes of the Galapagos Islands. Stanford University Press, Stanford.","Miller, D. J. & Lea, R. N. (1972) Guide to the coastal marine fishes of California. California Department of Fish and Game Fish Bulletin, 157.","Karinen, J. F., Wing, B. L. & Straty, R. R. (1985) Records and sightings of fish and invertebrates in the eastern Gulf of Alaska and oceanic phenonmenon related to the 1983 El Nino event. In: Wooster, W. S. & Fluherty, D. L. (Eds.), El Nino North: Nino Effects in the Eastern Subarctic Pacific Ocean. Washington Sea Grant Program, University of Washington, Seattle.","Lieske, E. & Myers, R. (2002) Coral Reef Fishes. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton.","Carpenter, K. E. & Niem, V. H. (Eds.). (2001) The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 5. Bony Fishes Part 3 (Menidae to Pomacentridae). Volime 6. Bony Fishes Part 4 (Labridae to Latimeriidae), Estuarine Crocodiles, Sea Turtles, Sea Snakes and Marine Mammals. FAO, Rome."]}