Distribution of mesopelagic fish in the Scotia Sea from RMT25 and pelagic trawls deployed from RRS James Clark Ross and RRS John Biscoe

Mesopelagic fish were sampled in the Scotia Sea using a 25 m2 opening and closing rectangular midwater trawl during five research cruises on RRS John Biscoe and RRS James Clark Ross. Nets sampled discrete layers, from the surface to 1000 m during austral spring, summer and autumn. The data include 17726 individual fish records from 66 taxa, the most abundant of which were myctophids of the genera Electrona, Gymnoscopelus, Krefftichthys and Protomyctophum and bathylagids (Bathylagus sp.). Length (standard length, total length or pre-anal fin length) was measured for the majority of specimens (16837), with sex and weight data also collected for many.

The work was conducted as part of the BAS Ecosystems Programmes funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council.

Alternate title: Polar Data Centre (PDC) record GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01474

Date (Publication): 2021-03-09

Citation identifier: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/dms/metadata.php?id= / GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01474

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
British Antarctic Survey		pdc@bas.ac.uk	Custodian
UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation	Collins, M., Piatkowski, U., & Saunders, R.	pdc@bas.ac.uk	Originator

Maintenance and update frequency: Unknown

Keywords

NDGO0001

NERC OAI Harvesting

NERC_DDC

GCMD Parameter Valids

EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Community Structure
EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Marine Biology > Fish
EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Marine Environment Monitoring

BAS Free-text keywords

Bathylagus
Myctophidae
Scotia Sea
Southern Ocean
distribution

Use limitation: Data released under Open Government Licence V3.0: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Data released under Open Government Licence V3.0: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Language: English

Topic category

Biota
Environment
Oceans

Begin date: 2006-10-24

End date: 2006-12-03

Reference system identifier: OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326

Distribution format

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Polar Data Centre - British Antarctic Survey		pdc@bas.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
http		GET DATA

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Domain consistency

Measure identification: INSPIRE / Conformity_001

Conformance result

Title: INSPIRE Data Specification on unknown theme Guidelines

Date

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: No

Statement: The data are largely consistent with the information published in Collins et al. (2008, 2012) and Piatkowski et al. (1994), but a few points to note:

1. Piatkowski et al. (1994) only included data from Station 1 and Station 2. Data from six additional nets from SW of South Georgia are included here.

2. Collins et al. (2012) only included stratified (non-target) nets, but the data includes fish caught in targeted hauls.

3. There is some uncertainty regarding the specific identification of fish of the genus Bathylagus. Collins et al. (2008) reported B. antarcticus, B. tenuis and B. gracilis, but preliminary molecular analysis (unpublished) suggests that there are four species. It is likely that the fish caught in the southern Scotia Sea are B. antarcticus, but others should be considered Bathylagus sp.