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The Biology of Fish of the Family Moridae in the Deep-Water of the Rockall Trough

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

J. D. M. Gordon  and
J. A. R. Duncan
J. D. M. Gordon
Affiliation:
Scottish Marine Biological Association, Dunstaffnage Marine Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 3, Oban, Argyll, Scotland PA34 4AD
J. A. R. Duncan
Affiliation:
Scottish Marine Biological Association, Dunstaffnage Marine Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 3, Oban, Argyll, Scotland PA34 4AD
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Extract

The morid fishes are important members of the deep-water associations of fish on the continental slope of the Rockall Trough. Three species, Lepidion eques, Halargyreus johnsonii and Mora moro, are distributed between about 500 and 1250 m while Antimora rostrata has its centre of abundance between about 1750 and 2200 m. Aspects of their biology including changes in abundance and length composition with depth, reproduction and fecundity and age composition are described.

INTRODUCTION

In a trawling survey of the bottom-living fish of the Rockall Trough at depths from about 400 to 2900 m, 4 species of the family Moridae were sampled. Three species, Lepidion eques, Halargyreus johnsonii and Mora moro were distributed on the upper and mid slopes while a fourth species Antimora rostrata occurred on the lower slope and continental rise. Several different trawls were used to sample the fish populations of the slope and Gordon & Duncan (in the Press) have discussed the relative selectivity of each of these nets for sampling different species of fish. In many of the bathymetric zones fished morids were important both in terms of biomass and abundance. Some preliminary observations on aspects of the biology of Lepidion eques have been published (Gordon, 1979 a, b) and Mauchline & Gordon (1980, 1984) have described the diets of the morid fish from the Rockall Trough in some detail. In this paper other aspects of their biology will be described.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , May 1985 , pp. 475 - 485
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1985

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