FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. 1 



those in the present study within the 350-1,100 m 

 depth interval. Respectively, the family Macrouridae 

 accounted for 21% and 22.4% of the fishes captured 

 in these depth intervals. 



Haedrich and Krefft (1978) studied the fish fauna 

 in the Denmark Strait and Irminger Sea. In the five 

 fish assemblages that they reported, macrourids 

 were abundant in the 2,026-2,058 m assemblage 

 (22.4%) and very dominant in the 763-1,503 m 

 (48.3%) and 493-975 m (55.4%) assemblages. 

 Macrourids were conspicuously absent from their 

 group three assemblage, although it was well within 

 macrourid depth and temperature range (280-776 m, 

 1.4°-7.4°C). An interesting aspect of Haedrich and 

 Krefft's (1978) study was evident in their group two 

 assemblage Coryphaenoides rupestris was the 

 highly dominant fish (48.3%) in this group, and the 

 temperature range of this group (3.9°-5.6°C) corre- 

 sponded closely to the temperature range we found 

 for C. rupestris in the present study (3.7°-5.7°C). 



Pearcy et al. (1982) summarized data on deep-sea 

 benthic fishes collected over several years off Oregon 

 (Day and Pearcy 1968; Pearcy and Ambler 1974). 

 Iwamoto and Stein (1974) reported 11 species of 

 macrourids from the northeast Pacific and Pearcy 

 et al. (1982) recorded 8 of these off Oregon. A com- 

 parison of these data with ours shows that the 

 greatest contrast in the two areas is on the upper 

 and middle slope (500-1,000 m) where five common 

 species are regularly encountered in the western 

 Atlantic (Coelorinchus c. carminatus, Nezumia bair- 

 dii, C. aequalis, Coryphaenoides rupestris, and Ven- 

 trifossa occidentalis), but Pearcy et al. (1982) record- 

 ed no macrourid as common. This faunal difference 

 may be due to the high density off Oregon of scor- 

 paeniform and lycodine fishes, many of which may 

 fill niches on the upper slope occupied by macrourids 

 elsewhere The macrourid fauna in depths >2,000 m 

 have many similarities to our study. Coryphaenoides 

 armatus becomes increasingly dominant below this 

 depth and often is the only species captured deeper 

 than 3,000 m in both areas (see also Musick and 

 Sulak 1979). Among other macrourid species Cory- 

 phaenoides leptolepis is usually second or third in 

 abundance at abyssal depths in both regions (Musick 

 and Sulak 1979). 



This distribution pattern is very different from 

 that reported for the continental rise in the tropics 

 off west Africa (Merrett and Marshall 1981) where 

 C. armatus and other large rat tails were very rare 

 Marshall and Merrett (1981) speculated that the rari- 

 ty of large predatory scavengers in the upwelling 

 area they studied might be because of the com- 

 petitively superior fishes of small size which were 



better adapted to use the constant abundant food 

 supply there This speculation is not supported by 

 data from the southern Sargasso Sea and Bahamas 

 (Musick and Sulak unpubl. data), a tropical region 

 quite low in productivity, in which large rat tails, such 

 as C armatus, are also very rare The virtual absence 

 of C. armatus from tropical abyssal areas may be 

 due instead to some restriction on the life history 

 of the species. Musick and Sulak (1979) have sug- 

 gested that this species (along with some other large 

 species of predator/scavenger such as C. rupestris 

 and Antimora rostrata) may migrate to boreal areas 

 to spawn. The tropics may be too far removed from 

 such spawning areas for individuals to successfully 

 return. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



We wish to thank all colleagues formerly or pres- 

 ently with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science 

 for their enthusiastic participation in the deep-sea 

 program, and particularly to Charles Wenner, 

 Richard Carpenter, Douglas Markle, George 

 Sedberry, and Kenneth Sulak. Daniel Cohen of the 

 Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History 

 kindly contributed cogent comments on early stages 

 of this manuscript. Drafts and final copy of this 

 report were prepared by the Virginia Institute of 

 Marine Science Report Center. 



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