Multiple oceanic sites in the eastern North Atlantic (8° N - 53° N, 10° W - 25° W) from upper slope to abyssal soundings

Fish morphology, age and physiology; Fish abundance in water bodies; Fish taxonomy-related abundance per unit area of the bed; Fish taxonomy-related counts; Fish non taxonomy-related abundance per unit volume of the water column

Pelagic trawl nets

The project aim is to identify the species richness, distribution (horizontal and vertical) and biology of deep demersal fishes in the eastern north Atlantic. (It includes also a single set comprising 678 samples of 338 species analyzed for the whole of the North Atlantic Basin up to 1988.) The samples are concentrated in the Porcupine Seabight/Abyssal Plain area, off north west Africa and in the Great Meteor East Abyssal Plain. The data set comprises over 200 samples (of 0.5 to 3.5 hour duration) from 240m - 5440m soundings, comprising some 10,000 specimens representing circa 250 species. Catches were identified, counted and weighed at sea. Sex and stomach contents were noted. Most were discarded after representative samples were retained for NHM collections. The data are arranged by species per sample and location in bathymetric sequence, but can also be accessed as a time series. Each abundant species is arranged by size and sex. As with all trawl samples, species composition of fish, proportional abundance, and size range is limited by overall size, mesh size and towing speed of the gear.

Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum
Department of Zoology, Cromwell Road
London

SW7 5BD
United Kingdom