160 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETEST 291 



broad belt of productive water extends across the North Pacific in cold- 

 temperate and boreal regions; parts of the Bering Sea equal the 

 Norwegian Sea in organic production. The Sargasso Sea, which con- 

 stitutes much of the North Atlantic Central Water Mass, has the lowest 

 values of productivity. South Atlantic Central Water, Indian Central 

 Water, and North and South Pacific Central Water are also low in or- 

 ganic production (Nielsen and Jensen, 1957). Vertical mixing and 

 strong upwelling along the western coasts of the American and African 

 Continents result in greater production than in western and central 

 regions of the Atlantic and Pacific. The Benguela Current that flows 

 northward along southwest Africa has areas of intense upwelling and 

 high productivity, and in this way it is analogous with the Peru 

 Current off western South America (Hart and Currie, 1960). Recent 

 explorations in the Gulf of Guinea and along the south coast of West 

 Africa by the Institute of Marine Sciences (Miami) and the Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries leave little doubt that these waters are con- 

 siderably more productive than has previously been thought. Therefore 

 the shading on the chart in this area underestimates actual productiv- 

 ity. The eastern Pacific equatorial waters are highly productive, and a 

 belt of relatively high production extends westward along the equator 

 and attenuates between 160° and 180°W. A similar, though less pro- 

 nounced, westward extension of productive waters occurs in the eastern 

 tropical Atlantic, although it is bisected by a tongue of low-productiv- 

 ity water borne eastward by the Equatorial Countercurrent (Nielsen 

 and Jensen, 1957). Moderate to high productivity occurs around the 

 near-shore waters of the Indian Ocean and in a narrow band along the 

 divergence between the South Equatorial Current and the Equatorial 

 Countercurrent at 8°-10°S. 



A positive relationship between productivity and distribution of 

 Bathyteuthis is apparent when the locations of captures (fig. 50) are 

 compared with the chart of organic production (fig. 60). The corre- 

 spondence in the Antarctic Ocean is expected, but nearly every other 

 capture of BathyteufMs throughout the eastern Pacific, the Atlantic, 

 and the Indian Oceans, as well, comes from a region of highly produc- 

 tive waters. This is especially so along the west coast of South America, 

 in the Gulf of Panama, off southern California, in the North Atlantic, 

 and off West. Africa. 



The captures in the midequatorial Atlantic, off northeastern South 

 America, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the southeastern U.S., and in the 

 Indian Ocean are in areas of moderate productivity. No captures are 

 available from the regions of lowest productivity ; the rarity of Bathy- 

 teuthis in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico and its apparent 

 absence from the Caribbean Sea and Central North Atlantic may well 



