Pelagic capture of abyssobenthic macrourid fish

Abstract

This is the first known report of the midwater capture of a species of macrourid that lives on the abyssal plain. Four Coryphaenoides filifer were caught in an Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl over 500 m above the 2700- to 2800-m sea floor in the northeastern Pacific Ocean off central Oregon. Such behavior helps to explain the presence of pelagic organisms in the stomachs abyssobenthic macrourids and may accelerate transport of energy and elements to the deep-sea benthos.