Observations of two deep‐sea chimaeroids in Icelandic waters

Abstract

Long‐term survey time series repeated occurrence of the deep‐sea chimaeroid species small‐eyed rabbitfish Hydrolagus affinis and large‐eyed rabbitfish H. mirabilis have been observed at same but few locations in Icelandic waters over 23 years. For H. affinis the catch at one specific station has consisted almost exclusively of mature males over the time period. Identification of potential aggregation locations is of vital importance to natural resource management because such aggregation may render these species vulnerable to potential fishing activities.

Of three sharks and one chimaera: varied habitat preferences across a latitudinal range revealed by coastal and offshore surveys

“…This aggregation behaviour has already been highlighted for S. acanthias and for several Etmopterus species (Finucci et al ., 2018) but also for C. monstrosa and G. melastomus which aggregate, e.g ., at coral mounds, cold water sponge beds and high productivity areas (Kutti et al ., 2014, 2015). Sexual segregation has been frequently recorded in deep‐sea chondrichthyans (Finucci et al ., 2018; Jakobsdóttir et al ., 2019). The islands in mid‐Norway were previously identified as hotspots also for other shark species, like the porbeagle ( Lamna nasus ; González Triginer, 2020) and the basking shark ( Cetorhinus maximus ; Junge et al ., in prep).…”