28o DISCOVERY REPORTS 



depths. Out of ninety specimens, two only could have been taken in less than 150 fm., and none in 

 less than 272 m. The only large catch showed a high proportion of males, but at WS821A (ten 

 individuals) the entire catch consisted of females, which generally preponderated in the small catches: 



Coelorhxtichus fasciatiis (Giinther). All our specimens of this species were obtained in summer and 

 autumn (third survey) in deep water over the shelf edge, mainly in the Falkland trough. Out of 140 

 specimens captured one only could have been taken in less than 200 m. of water. A notable prepon- 

 derance of females was observed in three out of four catches of fourteen or more individuals. This 

 may be due to the higher escape ratio of the smaller males, but abnormal sex ratios were also observed 

 in Coryphaenoides, and it may be that there is a tendency towards sexual segregation among shoals of 

 fishes belonging to this family at certain seasons. It is possible that the geographical range of Coelo- 

 rhyfichus fasciatus extends considerably farther north. Owing to the steepness of the descent from the 

 shelf there our chances of trawling in suitable depths were extremely limited. It is noteworthy that 

 this smaller species, though found exclusively over the edge like members of the family everywhere, 

 favoured slightly shallower depths than did Coryphaenoides. 



From Phillipps (1921) we learn that Coelorhynchiis australis, called 'javelin-fish' in New Zealand, is 

 occasionally taken by trawlers in Golden Bay, and highly esteemed as a food fish. It may therefore 

 be that the usual dumping of macrurids, as ' rattails ' among the rubbish of trawl catches, as is general 

 off the British Isles and off" South Africa, is a needless waste. If Coryphaenoides is similarly edible it 

 would be the more valuable of the two Patagonian species on account of its larger size — up to 87 cm. 

 as against 38 cm. in our catches: 



MERLUCCIIDAE 

 Merluccius hubbsi Marini 

 INTRODUCTION: ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ALLIED SPECIES 

 Merluccius hubbsi Marini, the Patagonian hake, is the most important and one of the most numerous 

 fishes of the region. In our trawling catches it ranked third in numbers to Notothenia ramsayi and 

 Macruronus magellaniciis, but the weight of Merhicciiis captured exceeded that of the other two species 

 combined, and formed 47-3 % of the weight of all the fishes caught at eighty-three stations worked 

 during the third survey for which weight data are available. 



All the true hakes are very closely related ; there is, indeed, still room for doubt as to whether some 

 are specifically distinct. Their distribution raises many problems of great general biological interest 

 which I hope some day to discuss at length elsewhere. For our present purpose it is sufficient to note 

 that the Patagonian species is known to range from the southern coast of Brazil (probably from about 

 the point where the Brazil current begins to swing off'shore) to the neighbourhood of the eastern 

 entrance to Magellan Straits. From Norman's (1937, p. 46) diagnoses there appears to be no doubt 

 that it is specifically distinct from M. gayi (Guichenot), the common species of the west coast of South 

 America, with which it was for long confused. Indeed, M. hubbsi in its general bodily proportions 

 resembles the silver hake or 'whiting' of New England and the north-west Atlantic, M. bilinearis 



