Description: Body moderately elongate, massive, compressed posteriorly; trunk high and long, anus slightly before midpoint of body. Colour black to brown. Scales forming a basketweave pattern, over the entire body except for part of the head.
Global Distribution: Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Circumglobal in the northern hemisphere only. View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum length 137 cm. No sexual dimorphism in size.
Reproduction: Ripe females of a wide range of sizes, plus the absence of morphological degeneration in recently spent females (typical of semelparous species) suggest iteroparity. Breeding may be seasonal and occur towards the end of the year. Estimates of fecundity range from 39 000 - 1 350 000 eggs per female.
Maturity: range 30 - 40 cm
Behavioural ecology:
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 295 - 5440 m, usually ? - 2420 m.
Habitat: Benthopelagic on the continental slope and abyssal plain. Most abundant at continental rise depths.
Feeding habits: Feeds on fishes, crustaceans, and squid. Mostly a scavenger.
Trophic level: FishBase: 4.2
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Not commercial.
Conservation status: Global: Not evaluated.
Europe: Least concern.
Hureau J.-C., ed. (1984-1985). Fishes of the North-Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. UNESCO. Accessed through: Marine Species Identification Portal. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://species-identification.org (2014).
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Karmovskaya E.S., Merrett N.R. (1998). Taxonomy of the deepâ€sea eel genus, Histiobranchus (Synaphobranchidae, Anguilliformes), with notes on the ecology of H. bathybius in the eastern North Atlantic. Journal of Fish Biology, 53(5): 1015-1037.
Merrett N.R. (1994). Reproduction in the North Atlantic oceanic ichthyofauna and the relationship between fecundity and species' sizes. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 41(1-4): 207-245.
Nieto A., Ralph G.M., Comeros-Raynal M.T., Kemp J., GarcÃa Criado M., Allen D.J., Dulvy N.K., Walls R.H.L., Russell B., Pollard D., GarcÃa S., Craig M., Collette B.B., Pollom R., Biscoito M., Labbish Chao N., Abella A., Afonso P., Ãlvarez H., Carpenter K.E., Clò S., Cook R., Costa M.J., Delgado J., Dureuil M., Ellis J.R., Farrell E.D., Fernandes P., Florin A-B., Fordham S., Fowle, S., Gil de Sola L., Gil Herrera J., Goodpaster A., Harvey M., Heessen H., Herler J., Jung A., Karmovskaya E., Keskin C., Knudsen S.W., Kobyliansky S., KovaÄić M., Lawson J.M., Lorance P., McCully Phillips S., Munroe T., Nedreaas K., Nielsen J., Papaconstantinou C., Polidoro B., Pollock C.M., Rijnsdorp A.D., Sayer C., Scott J., Serena F., Smith-Vaniz W.F., Soldo A., Stump E., Williams J.T. (2015). Europen Red List of Marine Fishes. IUCN and European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 90 pp.
