The Deep-Sea Benthic Fish Fauna of the Northeastern Pacific Ocean on Cascadia and Tufts Abyssal Plains and Adjoining Continental Slopes

Abstract

AbstractThe faunal composition of deep-sea fishes is described from 579 beam and otter trawl collections from the continental slope and abyssal plains off Oregon, at depths from 400 to 5,180 m. Ninety of the 104 species known to inhabit depths greater than 400 m in this area of the northeastern Pacific were captured. Sixty-one species were found on the continental slope, 28 on Cascadia Abyssal Plain, nine on eastern Tufts Abyssal Plain, and two on western Tufts Plain.Families represented by the most species were Scorpaenidae, Liparididae, and Zoarcidae on the slope, and Liparididae, Zoarcidae, and Macrouridae on the abyssal plains. Scorpaenids were numerically dominant on the upper slope, and macrourids on the mid-lower slope and abyssal plains. The macrourid Coryphaenoides armatus was caught at all abyssal stations and was consistently the most abundant fish at depths greater than 2,500 m. Coryphaenoides filifer and C. leptolepis were consistently the second and third most numerous species on Cascadia.Th...