DEEP-SEA PAGES:
BATHYAL AND ABYSSAL FISHES

Paul H. Yancey, Whitman College
Return to my MAIN DEEP-SEA PAGE for details on animal collection and for TOPIC CONTENTS (or use pull-down menu, below right).
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Some of these photos are mine, others are ones I took from the ROV Oceanic Explorer's camera monitor.
If you can help us identify species with a *, please contact me at the email above.
OTHER TOPICS

DEEP-SEA BENTHIC & BENTHOPELAGIC FISHES
These are fish which live on the bottom, or swim just above it. For pictures and information on deepsea pelagic fishes (which swim in the open water), go to the "Mesopelagic/Midwater" Page.

TO FIND almost any FISH SPECIES in the world, go to FISHBASE. The species names below in BLUE are linked to FISHBASE for more information. The Taiwan Fishbase site (mostly non-English) has many pictures of fishes from all depths, and can be searched by fish family names (in English).
MORE DETAILS on DEEP SEA FISH can be found at Jeff Drazen's U. Hawai'i site

Grenadier (rattail) at 2300m;
on Juan de Fuca ridge
photo taken from Alvin

A. OREGON BATHYAL and ABYSSAL
(a) = abyssal plain (2850m), (ob) = continental slope (1800-2000m) off Newport, Oregon
*Pictures with "*" or "?" are species we haven't fully identified yet.
Thanks to RUBEN POHL (Austria) for tentative identifications of eelpouts and cuskeels, and for depth information on many species.
**CLICK PICTURES FOR LARGER VERSIONS**


Oregon bathyal
cinereus
Rattail or popeye grenadier
Coryphaenoides
cinereus (ob)
(550-1800m mainly)

Oregon abyssal
rattail1..rattail2
Rattail or grenadier
Coryphaenoides spp (a);
one on the left has a large
parasite in its skin. See the MBARI site on rattails; scroll down there for parasite information.
Oregon bathyal
rattail2..big rattail..rattail mouth
Giant grenadier
Albatrossia pectoralis (ob)
(500-1600m mainly)
(and Joe S. of LSU)
Oregon bathyal
skate..skate egg case
White Skate (ob)
Bathyraja spinosissima
(1200-2100 m)
(a) = abyssal plain (2850m), (ob) = continental slope (1800-2000m) off Newport, Oregon

  • Rattail or Grenadier fish: termed benthopelagic or demersal fish because they swim just above the bottom, these relatives of cod are the most common fish of bathyal and abyssal habitats. The deepest grenadier observed lives down to 6500m.
    Rattails have huge heads, large eyes, and long tapered tails. They have swim bladders--which may be used to make sound as well as to float--and cruise slowly above the bottom searching for live animals and carcasses to eat. The Russians have been catching these fish for food for many years now, and their numbers are declining in their waters. For a recent article on such deep-sea fishing, see New Scientist, Nov. 8, 1997. See the MBARI site on rattails (Macrourid fish) for more information

    Our lab studies how these fish adapt to high pressure. See the High Pressure page for details.

    A swimming rattail can be seen in the recent movie "TITANIC" in the scenes filmed in the underwater wreck, which lies at about 4000m. Rattails at the Titanic are also described on the Discovery Channel's expedition there.

  • Skates: these soft-nosed cartilaginous fish are inhabitants of the continental slopes. Like the common skates of shallow waters, they are carnivores that rest on the bottom and swim with their "wings," and lay eggs in capsules (above) that look like a piece of algal detritus. Possibly the deepest-dwelling skate is Rajella bigelowi from the North Atlantic (300-4100m).
eelpout1
Eelpout (ob)
Lycenchelys*
camchaticus or jordani?		 eelpout2
Eelpout(a)
Pachycara
bulbiceps
(2400-4800m)		 brotulid?
Cuskeel or Brotulid? (a)*
Sciadonus pedicellaris?
(1847-4880m)
 zoarcid
Eelpout; Deepwater slipskin? (a)*
Lycodapus endemoscotus?
(1900-2200m?)		 idiotfish
Idiotfish or longspine thornyhead (ob)
Sebastolobus altivelis
(200-1760m) 		blob sculpin
Blob sculpin (ob)
Psychrolutes phrictus
(550-1400m; possibly to 2800m)
  • Brotulid fish: these are also common deep fishes, with big heads and tapering tails as well, but are not closely related to rattails. Deeper species often have small or degenerate eyes. Not much is known about them. The deepest known fish in the oceans are brotulids Abyssobrotula found in trenches at over 8000 m and thus in the Hadal or Hadopelagic zone. The record appears to be an Abyssobrotula galatheae at 8372m in the Puerto Rico trench (thanks to Ruben Pohl for this information).
  • Zoarcids or eelpouts: these eel-like fish are also poorly known in the deep; generally bottom-dwelling or benthopelagic. Some species are associated with hydrothermal vents, often seen swimming around giant tubeworms in videos of the vents.
  • Blob sculpin: a flabby, loose-skinned fish that probably sits on the continental slopes waiting for prey. First discovered in the 1960s off California


B. Northern CALIFORNIA and OREGON Slope
(510-520m deep off Eureka, Calif., and 600-900m at Hydrate Ridge off Newport, Oregon; photos from Alvin (except Catshark, seen with ROV)
(From about 510m, on the Continental Slope)--rough video images from ROV monitor

Catshark (Apristurus sp. or Parmaturus xaniurus)(200-950m)

Chimaera (?) seen from Alvin(600m)

Sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria
(mainly 300-1400m; deepest 2740m)

Eelpouts seen from Alvin at 600 and 890m

Flatfish seen from Alvin at 500-600m

Searobin?

Unidentified fish seen from Alvin, 600m

Hagfish Eptatretus
(probably deani, depth
107-2743m, mainly 250-1200m).
  • Catshark: The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a good photo of this shark, with information.
  • Sablefish: common carnivores; the target of some deepwater fisheries; may live to be 70 yrs old.
  • Hagfish: common scavengers of the bathyal zone; they eat large carcasses, and coat them in a noxious slimy coat to ward off other scavengers. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a good photo of another deep species, with information.


C. ATLANTIC (Subtidal to Bathyal)
monkfish
  • Goosefish or Anglerfish or Monkfish Lophius americanus: this bottom-dwelling subtidal fish is from the East Coast of the U.S., and lives down to about 1000m. It sits disguised on the bottom and uses a lure on its head to fool prey into approaching.
I don't have any other Atlantic specimens at this time.
References:
For pictures of deep pelagic fish, click the MIDWATER link below.