Bathyal and abyssal demersal bait-attending fauna of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

ABSTRACT: Baited cameras were deployed over a depth range of 532-5111 m in the Ionian Sea to characterise the large mobile fauna. The planned installation of a neutrino telescope also offers the potential for biological observatories. The current study was intended to aid observatory placement. At increasing depths, sediment was observed to become more uniform and animal burrows and tracks reduced. A total of 10 species of deep-sea fishes were identified from images; four elasmobranchs, which were not recorded deeper than 1841 m, and six teleosts. At depths > 3000 m, including Calypso Deep, the deepest point in the Mediterranean, only one fish species was observed; the Mediterranean grenadier, Coryphaenoides mediterraneus (3400-5111 m), extending this species' maximum recorded depth to 5111 m

SUBMITTER: Linley TD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6153865 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature