Premium
Seamount egg‐laying grounds of the deep‐water skate Bathyraja richardsoni
Author(s) -
Henry L.A.,
Stehmann M. F. W.,
De Clippele L.,
Findlay H. S.,
Golding N.,
Roberts J.M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/jfb.13041
Subject(s) - seamount , biology , skate , fishery , reef , oceanography , coral reef , chondrichthyes , abyssal zone , paleontology , geology
Highly localized concentrations of elasmobranch egg capsules of the deep‐water skate Bathyraja richardsoni were discovered during the first remotely operated vehicle ( ROV ) survey of the Hebrides Terrace Seamount in the Rockall Trough, north‐east Atlantic Ocean. Conductivity–temperature–depth profiling indicated that the eggs were bathed in a specific environmental niche of well‐oxygenated waters between 4·20 and 4·55° C, and salinity 34·95–35·06, on a coarse to fine‐grained sandy seabed on the seamount's eastern flank, whereas a second type of egg capsule (possibly belonging to the skate Dipturus sp.) was recorded exclusively amongst the reef‐building stony coral Solenosmilia variabilis . The depths of both egg‐laying habitats (1489–1580 m) provide a de facto refuge from fisheries mortality for younger life stages of these skates.