Abstract
A single merlucciid specimen (BSKU 70615, 472 mm in standard length), trawled off Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, was identified as Merluccius productus (Ayres, 1855) based on the following combination of counts: number of anal-fin rays (41), gill rakers on first arch (20/19), vertebrae (23+31=54), ribs (3), and lateral line scales (135). All other characters are consistent with those of the species previously described. Merluccius productus is distributed widely on the Pacific coast off North America from California to the Gulf of Alaska. It is also known from three records from Tatar Strait (the Sea of Okhotsk), Bering Sea, and Attu Island (west end of Aleutian Islands). The specimen is therefore the first recorded from Japan, and the western North Pacifc. This occurrence from outside of the normal distribution may be the result of some biological traits of the species such as strong swimming ability and offshore migration.
