The fish fauna of the Ross Sea, Antarctica

The RV Nathaniel B. Palmer was used for bottom trawling at depths of 100-12 00 m during two recent cruises in the south-western Ross Sea Although only 10 of 20 trawls were completely successful, a diverse collection of 979 spe cimens was obtained representing 47 species (36 notothenioids and 11 non-no tothenioids) and eight families. The collection included four new species, a new colour morph of a known species and eight rare species: The collectio n also established four new locality records, three second occurrences, thr ee most southerly records and eleven new depth records for fish in the Ross Sea, Good taxonomic coverage for some groups was indicated by collection o f all four species of Artedidraco, nine of ten bathydraconids and seven of eight channichthyids occurring in East Antarctica. The most abundant specie s were Trematomus scotti (29.7%), Bathydraco marri(10.4%), Trematomus eulep idotus (8.7%) and Dolloidraco longedorsalis (6.1%). Fish biomass was determ ined at two stations. The fish fauna of the Ross Sea south of the 1000-m is obath includes at least 80 species -54 notothenioids and 26 non-notothenioi ds, approximately the same number as the Weddell Sea. Species diversity (H' =1.88) was higher than both the Weddell Sea and boreal regions. This collec tion indicates that, even in relatively shallow water, knowledge of specifi c and intraspecific diversity in the Ross Sea fauna is incomplete.