-81- 



gather to feed on krill swarms. Pelagic fish and squids 

 are taken by most petrels and albatrosses, and there is 

 evidence that competition is avoided by prey size selection 

 (Voous, 1965) . 



E. Antarctic Fish 



The dominant Antarctic ichthyofauna group is the 

 Nototheniif ormes comprised of five families that make up 

 nearly three quarters of all coastal fish species 

 (Andriashev, 1965, 1970; Everson, 1977) . Most are sluggish 

 bottom dwellers, though in the genera Pleuragramma and 

 Dissostichus , some pelagic types occur (Marchall, 1964). 

 Other Antarctic fish groups include the Zoracidae (eel pouts) , 

 Liparidae (sea snails) , Macrouridae (rat-tailed fishes) , 

 and Gadidae (cod-like fishes) . 



1. Distribution 



Information on many species' distribution is incomplete. 

 Many species seem restricted to continental shelves, and 

 over 80% are found at depths between 200 and 500 meters 

 (Andriashev, 1965) . Nybelin (in Andriashev, 1965) categorized 

 Antarctic fish into seven zoogeographical zones which aid 

 in delineating relative species abundance geographically. 

 The zones include: Circumpolar Antarctic, 20 species; 

 East Antarctic, 30 species; West Antarctic, 8 species; 

 West Antarctic/South Georgia, 4 species limited to those 

 respective areas; South Georgia, 10 species; Kerguelen, 

 11 species; and Antarctic-notal, 7 species which penetrate 

 Antarctic waters from Patagonia and New Zealand. It is 

 beyond the scope of this work to describe individual species 

 distributions, and what follows is a brief and general 

 review. 



Antarctic fish distributions are best known for those 

 species offering research and/or fisheries potential due 

 either to accessibility or abundance. The following is 

 drawn from information in Everson (1977) , Andriashev (1965) , 

 and Marshall (1964) . 



The skates (Rajidae) are an important family including 

 three species which may have economic importance: Raja 

 georgica, R. murraijii and R. eatonii . Their distribution 

 IS primarily limited to the South Georgia, South Orkney, 

 Kerguelen and South Sandwich Island shelves (Table 17) . 



Antarctic "cods" (Nototheniidae) dominate the fish 

 fauna both in terms of numbers of species and number of 



