The ecology, distribution, and abundance of midwater fishes of the Subarctic Pacific gyres

We describe the distribution and abundance of the midwater fish community, between 200 m and 500 m, in the North Pacific. The main area of interest was the Subarctic Pacific gyres, but we include species from the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. There were 196 species identified in each gyre, 38 of which were common to both gyres, The most abundant species belong to the family Myctophidae and the most ecologically important myctophid probably is Stenobrachius leucopsarus. This species could have a biomass of approximately 21 million tonnes (t) in the Subarctic Pacific (including the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk). S. leucopsarus is a small (about 8 cm maximum length) fish that lives up to 7 years. It is prey for a variety of other fishes, birds and mammals and may migrate into the mixing layer each evening where it feeds mainly on euphausiids and copepods. The total abundance of midwater fishes appears to be large relative to total catches of other fish in the same areas. The vertical migratory behaviour of some of the residents provides a mechanism to transfer production out of the mixing layer. The movement into the surface layer by some fishes at night indicates that dynamic changes occur in the midwater community between the day and night, and the ecosystem dynamics in the surface layer are different in the day and in the night. This behaviour and the huge biomass relative to commercial species means that the dynamics of fish communities in the Subarctic Pacific are complex and need to be studied over a 24 hour period, The large biomasses may eventually attract commercial interest, thus it is important to establish international, cooperative programs now to learn more about the dynamics of these populations and the relationships with other species. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.