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12 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15331, Mesopelagic fishes play a central role in marine food webs linking primary consumers to top predators. In this study, measures of direct calorimetry were used to analyse the energy density (ED) of 34 mesopelagic species collected at 12 stations in the equatorial and tropical Atlantic. Mean ED ranged from 2.7 kJ g−1 wet weight (WW) for the lanterfish Lampanyctus nobilis to 8.7 kJ g−1 WW for the lanterfish Benthosema glaciale. This study includes species of the orders Myctophiformes and Stomiiformes and represents migrants, non-migrants and partial-migrants species. The majority of the species were grouped into the medium-energy quality category (ED from 4 to 6 kJ g−1); Myctophiformes showed higher energetic values than the Stomiiformes. For the different species, the ED values were discussed in relation to spawning period and energy allocation strategies for reproduction and growth and feeding and migratory behaviour, as well as the ecoregion of study. These values will be useful for future assessment of energetic transfer between trophic levels and energetic modelling of Atlantic ecosystems, This research study was sponsored by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through the project CTM2012-39587-C04-03. We also acknowledge the institutional support of the AEI “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) and project SUMMER (grant agreement no. 817806)

The demand for information on mid-trophic level (MTL) organisms in open-ocean marine ecosystems has led to initiatives to collect acoustic data opportunistically in different regions around the world. Although, bulk acoustic data can provide information on the distribution patterns and dynamics of MTL organisms, it is necessary to convert acoustic-derived indices into biologically relevant quantities for parameterising and validating ecosystem and trophic models. A 7-year time series of acoustic data collected by ships of opportunity (SOOP) in the New Zealand sector of the Southern Ocean, information on species’ distribution derived from trawl samples collected in research voyages, and target strength (TS) estimates obtained using a resonance-scattering model and literature TS–length relationships, were used to obtain the first estimates of density of mesopelagic fish in this region. Estimates of mesopelagic fish density decreased from north to south reflecting changes in species composition and scattering properties across three latitudinal regions (Northern, Central and Southern). Density estimates ranged from 16.4–40.1 in the north to 4.4–13.4 g m−2 in the south. Catches revealed that the Northern region was dominated by Lampanyctodes hectoris and Protomyctophum sp. (Myctophidae) and Maurolicus australis (Sternoptychidae); the Central and Southern regions were dominated by the myctophids Electrona antarctica and Protomyctophum sp. and the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba. Information on species composition was the main source of uncertainty in the density estimates, highlighting the need for more biological sampling. This study demonstrates that it is possible to integrate acoustic data collected opportunistically with auxiliary information from research voyages and literature to provide estimates of mesopelagic fish biomass in remote areas.

The early life stages of fishes play a critical role in pelagic food webs and oceanic carbon cycling, yet little is known about the taxonomic composition and distribution of larval fishes in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) below the epipelagic ( 130,000 ichthyoplankton specimens from depth-discrete plankton samples collected across 48 stations in the GOM during six cruises conducted in 2010 and 2011. We examined indices of abundance and diversity, and used a multivariate regression tree approach to model the relationship between larval fish assemblages and environmental conditions. The total abundance of larval fish followed a generally decreasing trend with increasing depth, and family-level richness and diversity were significantly higher in the epipelagic than mesopelagic and bathypelagic regions. Fourteen distinct assemblage groups were identified within the epipelagic, with depth, surface salinity, and season contributing to the major branches separating groups. Within the mesopelagic, seven distinct assemblage groups were identified and were largely explained by variation in depth, season, and surface temperature. Bathypelagic assemblages were poorly described by environmental conditions. The most common epipelagic assemblage groups were widely distributed across the GOM, as were all mesopelagic assemblage groups, suggesting limited horizontal structuring of GOM larval fishes. Of the mesopelagic-associated fish taxa, four dominant families (Myctophidae, Gonostomatidae, Sternoptychidae, Phosichthyidae) comprised the majority of the catch in both the epipelagic (63%) and combined mesopelagic and bathypelagic (97%) regions. Dufrêne-Legendre indicator analysis confirmed that these dominant families were characteristic of epipelagic and mesopelagic assemblages; the larvae of less common mesopelagic-associated families largely identified with epipelagic assemblage groups. A lack of baseline data about the distribution patterns of early life stages of mesopelagic fishes in the GOM was apparent following the DWHOS, and these findings provide a valuable reference point in the face of future ecosystem stressors.

Microplastics (MPs

Unidentified opistognathid. Lissner and Dorsey (1986) observed from a manned submersible a jawfish they were unable to identify at Tanner��� Cortes Bank, southern California., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 150, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Lissner, A. L. & Dorsey, J. H. (1986) Deep-water biological assemblages of a hard-bottom bank-ridge complex of the southern California continental borderland. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, 85, 87 - 101."]}

Sternoptyx pseudobscura Baird, 1971. Highlight Hatchetfish. To 7 cm (2.8 in) SL (Aizawa in Nakabo 2002). Circumglobal; western Pacific Ocean north to Japan (Fujii in Masuda et al. 1984); British Columbia (Peden 1975) to Chile (Baird 1971). Depth: 156���2,300 m (492���7,544 ft) (min.: Personal communication: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Fish Collection, Los Angeles, California; max.: Porteiro et al. 2017). A record of 5,041 m (16,383 ft) (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California) was based on the maximum depth fished by a midwater trawl and may represent a catch shallower than the maximum depth., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 57, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Baird, R. C. (1971) The systematics, distribution, and zoogeography of the marine hatchetfishes (family Sternoptychidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 142, 1 - 128.","Nakabo, T. (Ed.). (2002) Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Masuda, H., Amaoka, K., Araga, C., Uyeno, T. & Yoshino, T. (Eds). (1984) The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Peden, A. E. (1975) Rare fishes including first records of thirteen species from British Columbia. Syesis, 7, 47 - 62. [1974 on journal, but not issued until January 1975.]","Porteiro, F. M., Sutton, T., Byrkjedal, I., Orlov, A. M. & Heino, M. (2017) Fishes of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge collected during the MAR-ECO cruise in June - July 2004: an annotated checklist. Arquipelago, Supplement 10."]}

Sternoptyx diaphana Hermann, 1781. Longspine Hatchetfish. To 6 cm (2.4 in) SL (Jesperson 1934). Circumglobal; western Pacific Ocean north to Japan (Fujii in Masuda et al. 1984) to Kuril Islands (Parin et al. 1995); Oregon (Matarese et al. 1989) to northern Chile (31��55���S) (Kong and Mel��ndez 1991). Depth: surface to 2,374 m (7,787 ft) (min.: Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California; max.: Porteiro et al. 2017). A maximum record of 4,667 m (15,308 ft) (Personal communication: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Fish Collection, Los Angeles, California) was taken in a midwater trawl towed from this depth to the surface and thus the exact depth of capture is unknown., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 57, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Jesperson, P. (1934) Gonostomatidae and Sternoptychidae. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, Faune Ichthyologique de l'Atlantique Nord, No. 151.","Masuda, H., Amaoka, K., Araga, C., Uyeno, T. & Yoshino, T. (Eds). (1984) The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Parin, N. V., Fedorov, V. V., Borodulina, O. D. & Bekker, V. E. (1995) New records of mesopelagic and epipelagic fishes in Pacific waters off the southern Kuril Islands. Journal of Ichthyology, 35, 193 - 204.","Matarese, A. C., Kendall Jr., A. W., Blood, D. M. & Vintner, B. M. (1989) Laboratory guide to early life history stages of northeast Pacific fishes. NOAA Technical Report NMFS, 80.","Kong, I. & Melendez, C. R. (1991) Estudio taxonomico y sistematico de la ictiofauna de aguas profundas capturada entie Arica e Isla Mocha (18 ° 30 ' - 38 ° 30 ' Lat. S). Estudios Oceanograficos, 10, 1 - 81.","Porteiro, F. M., Sutton, T., Byrkjedal, I., Orlov, A. M. & Heino, M. (2017) Fishes of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge collected during the MAR-ECO cruise in June - July 2004: an annotated checklist. Arquipelago, Supplement 10."]}

Argyropelecus lychnus Garman, 1899. Tropical Hatchetfish. To more than 7.6 cm (3 in) TL (Miller and Lea 1972). Eastern Pacific and possibly Indian Ocean; Gulf of Alaska (59.09��N, 147.01��W) (Stevens et al. 2009) to Chile (Baird 1971), including Islas Gal��pagos (McCosker et al. 1997). Depth: 66���2,124 m (216���6,967 ft) (min.: Castellanos-Galindo et al. 2006b; max. Cruz-Acevedo et al. 2018). Specimens previously reported as A. lychnus from British Columbia are A. sladeni (Mecklenburg et al. 2002)., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 56, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Miller, D. J. & Lea, R. N. (1972) Guide to the coastal marine fishes of California. California Department of Fish and Game Fish Bulletin, 157.","Baird, R. C. (1971) The systematics, distribution, and zoogeography of the marine hatchetfishes (family Sternoptychidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 142, 1 - 128.","McCosker, J. E., Merlin, G., Long, D. S., Gilmore, R. G. & Villon, C. (1997) Deep slope fishes collected during the 1995 eruption of Isla Fernandina, Galapagos. Noticias de Galapagos, No. 58, 22 - 26.","Castellanos-Galindo, G. A., Rubio Rincon, E. A., Beltran-Leon, B. & Baldwin, C. C. (2006 b) Check list of stomiiform, aulopiform and myctophiform fishes from Colombian waters of the Tropical Eastern Pacific. Biota Colombia, 7, 245 - 262.","Cruz-Acevedo, E., Tolimieri, N. & Aguirre-Villasenor, H. (2018) Deep-sea fish assemblages (300 - 2100 m) in the eastern Pacific off northern Mexico. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 592, 225 - 242. https: // doi. org / 10.3354 / meps 12502"]}

Argyropelecus aculeatus Valenciennes, 1850. Lovely Hatchetfish. To 8.3 cm (3.3 in) SL (Collette and Klein-MacPhee 2002). Circumglobal; western Pacific Ocean north to northern Japan (Aizawa in Nakabo 2002); central California (34��53.6���N, 121��30.2���W) (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California) to at least Ecuador (01��59���N, 84��15���W) (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California). Depth: 160���2,250 m (548���7,380 ft) (min.: Lima et al. 2011; max.: Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California). A record of 100 m in Froese and Pauly (2019), attributed to Shinohara et al. (1996), appears to be in error as Shinohara et al. lists 785 m as the shallowest catch. Deeper records (e.g., 4,100 m (13,448 ft) (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California); 5,178 m (16,984 ft) (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California)) may represent fish caught by trawls based on the maximum depth fished and may represent a catch shallower than the maximum depth., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 56, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Collette, B. B. & Klein-MacPhee, G. (2002) Bigelow and Schroeder's Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. Third Edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.","Nakabo, T. (Ed.). (2002) Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Lima, A. T., Costa, P. A. S., Braga, A. C., Nunan, G. W. A. & Mincarone, M. M. (2011) Fishes of the Sternoptychidae (Stomiiformes) collected on the Brazilian continental slope between 11 ° and 23 ° S. Zootaxa, 2742, 34 - 48. https: // doi. org / 10.11646 / zootaxa. 2742.1.2","Froese, R. & Pauly, D. (Eds). (2019) FishBase. World Wide Web Electronic Publication. www. fishbase. org, version (12 / 2019).","Shinohara, G., Endo, H. & Matsuura, K. (1996) Deep-water fishes collected from the Pacific coast of northern Honshu, Japan. Memoirs of the National Science Museum, 29, 153 - 185."]}

Maurolicus muelleri (Gmelin, 1789). Daisy Pearlside. 8 cm (3.1 in) SL (Froese and Pauly 2019; note that we were unable to verify this record). Circumglobal; British Columbia (Page et al. 2013). Depth: 0���3,527 m (11,569 ft) (Porteiro et al. 2017). ��� Maurolicus muelleri ��� is likely a species complex (Rees et al. 2017)., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 57, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Froese, R. & Pauly, D. (Eds). (2019) FishBase. World Wide Web Electronic Publication. www. fishbase. org, version (12 / 2019).","Page, L. M., Espinosa-Perez, H., Findley, L. T., Gilbert, C. R., Lea, R. N., Mandrak, N. E., Mayden, R. L. & Nelson, J. S. (2013) Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Seventh Edition. American Fisheries Society Special Publication, 34.","Porteiro, F. M., Sutton, T., Byrkjedal, I., Orlov, A. M. & Heino, M. (2017) Fishes of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge collected during the MAR-ECO cruise in June - July 2004: an annotated checklist. Arquipelago, Supplement 10.","Rees, D. J., Byrkjedal, I. & Sutton, T. T. (2017) Pruning the pearlsides: reconciling morphology and molecules in mesopelagic fishes (Maurolicus: Sternoptychidae). Deep-Sea Research II, 137, 246 - 257. https: // doi. org / 10.1016 / j. dsr 2.2016.04.024"]}

Danaphos oculatus (Garman, 1899). Bottlelight. To 5.7 cm (2.3 in) TL (Miller and Lea 1972). Pacific Ocean [Indian Ocean record questionable] (Fricke et al. 2020); off the Brooks Peninsula (50��07���N, 128��18���W), British Columbia (Peden and Hughes 1986) to Chile (Peque��o 1989). Depth: 52���914 m (172���2,998 ft) (min.: Eschmeyer and Herald 1983; max.: Personal communication: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Fish Collection, Los Angeles, California)., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 57, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Miller, D. J. & Lea, R. N. (1972) Guide to the coastal marine fishes of California. California Department of Fish and Game Fish Bulletin, 157.","Fricke, R., Eschmeyer, W. N. & van der Laan, R. (Eds). 2020. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Genera, Species, Reference. Available from: http: // researcharchive. calacademy. org / research / ichthyology / catalog / fishcatmain. asp (accessed 17 April 2021).","Peden, A. E. & Hughes, G. W. (1986) First records, confirmatory records, and range extensions of marine fishes off Canada's west coast. Canadian Field-Naturalist, 100, 1 - 9.","Pequeno R., G. (1989) Peces de Chile lista sistematica revisada y comentada. Revista de Biologia Marina y Oceanografia, 24, 1 - 132.","Eschmeyer, W. N. & Herald, E. S. (1983) A Field Guide to Pacific Coast Fishes of North America from the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California. Houghton Mifflin, Boston."]}

Argyropelecus hemigymnus Cocco, 1829. Spurred Hatchetfish. To 4.9 cm (1.9 in) TL or more (Mecklenburg et al. 2018). Circumglobal; western Pacific Ocean north to Japan (Aizawa in Nakabo 2002) and Russian northwestern Pacific (Orlov and Tokranov 2019); Washington (Matarese et al. 1989) to Chile (Baird 1971). Depth: 50���3,065 m (164���10,053 ft) (min.: Mecklenburg et al. 2018; max.: Porteiro et al. 2017)., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 56, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Mecklenburg, C. W., Lynghammar, A., Johannesen, E., Byrkjedal, I., Christiansen, J. S., Dolgov, A. V., Karamushko, O. V., Mecklenburg, T. A., Moller, P. R., Steinke, D. & Wienerrolther, R. M. (2018) Marine Fishes of the Arctic Region. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Akureyrl.","Nakabo, T. (Ed.). (2002) Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Orlov, A. M. & Tokranov, A. M. (2019) Checklist of deep-sea fishes of the Russian northwestern Pacific Ocean found at depths below 1000 m. Progress in Oceanography, 176, https: // doi. org / 10.1016 / j. pocean. 2019.102143","Matarese, A. C., Kendall Jr., A. W., Blood, D. M. & Vintner, B. M. (1989) Laboratory guide to early life history stages of northeast Pacific fishes. NOAA Technical Report NMFS, 80.","Baird, R. C. (1971) The systematics, distribution, and zoogeography of the marine hatchetfishes (family Sternoptychidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 142, 1 - 128.","Porteiro, F. M., Sutton, T., Byrkjedal, I., Orlov, A. M. & Heino, M. (2017) Fishes of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge collected during the MAR-ECO cruise in June - July 2004: an annotated checklist. Arquipelago, Supplement 10."]}

Argyropelecus sladeni Regan, 1908. Hatchetfish or Silvery Hatchetfish. To 6.7 cm (2.6 in) SL (Fujii in Masuda et al. 1984). Circumglobal; western Pacific Ocean north to Japan (Fujii in Masuda et al. 1984); western Bering Sea (Balanov 1992); British Columbia (Gillespie 1993) to Chile (Baird 1971). The distribution of this species is perhaps antitropical (Baird 1971). Depth: 0���1,200 m (3,936 ft) (Roberts et al. 2015). A record in the University of Washington, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Fish Collection lists a capture of this species in a midwater trawl fished at greater than 3,000 m (9,840 ft). However, the fish may have entered the trawl at any depth during deployment or retrieval., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 56, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Masuda, H., Amaoka, K., Araga, C., Uyeno, T. & Yoshino, T. (Eds). (1984) The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Balanov, A. A. (1992) New discoveries of deep-water fishes in pelagic waters of the Bering Sea. Journal of Ichthyology, 32 (9), 133 - 137.","Gillespie, G. E. (1993) An updated list of the fishes of British Columbia, and those of interest in adjacent waters, with numeric code designations. Canadian Technical Report Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 1918.","Baird, R. C. (1971) The systematics, distribution, and zoogeography of the marine hatchetfishes (family Sternoptychidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 142, 1 - 128.","Roberts, C. D., Stewart, A. L. & Struthers, C. D. (Eds.). (2015) The Fishes of New Zealand. Te Papa Press, Wellington."]}

Sternoptyx obscura Garman, 1899. Dusky Hatchetfish. To 5.5 cm (2.2 in) SL (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California). Circumglobal (Fricke et al. 2020); western Pacific Ocean north to Japan (Fujii in Masuda et al. 1984); at least Monterey Bay, central California (Burton and Lea 2019) to Peru ��� Chile border (Baird 1971). Depth: surface to 1,393 m (4,569 ft) (min.: Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California; max.: Cruz-Acevedo et al. 2018). A record of 4,268 m (13,999 ft) (Personal communication: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Fish Collection, Los Angeles, California) was based on the maximum depth fished by a midwater trawl and may represent a catch shallower than the maximum depth., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 57, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Fricke, R., Eschmeyer, W. N. & van der Laan, R. (Eds). 2020. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Genera, Species, Reference. Available from: http: // researcharchive. calacademy. org / research / ichthyology / catalog / fishcatmain. asp (accessed 17 April 2021).","Masuda, H., Amaoka, K., Araga, C., Uyeno, T. & Yoshino, T. (Eds). (1984) The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Burton, E. J. & Lea, R. N. (2019) Annotated checklist of fishes from Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary with notes on extralimital species. ZooKeys, 887. https: // doi. org / 10.3897 / zookeys. 887.38024","Baird, R. C. (1971) The systematics, distribution, and zoogeography of the marine hatchetfishes (family Sternoptychidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 142, 1 - 128.","Cruz-Acevedo, E., Tolimieri, N. & Aguirre-Villasenor, H. (2018) Deep-sea fish assemblages (300 - 2100 m) in the eastern Pacific off northern Mexico. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 592, 225 - 242. https: // doi. org / 10.3354 / meps 12502"]}

Argyropelecus affinis Garman, 1899. Slender Hatchetfish. To 9.4 cm (3.7 in) SL (Jesperson 1934). Circum-global; western Pacific Ocean north to Japan (Aizawa in Nakabo 2002); Oregon (Matarese et al. 1989) to northern Chile (Sielfeld et al. 1995). Depth: 50���2,056 m (164���6,744 ft) (min.: Eduardo et al. 2020; max.: Cruz-Acevedo et al. 2018)., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 56, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Jesperson, P. (1934) Gonostomatidae and Sternoptychidae. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, Faune Ichthyologique de l'Atlantique Nord, No. 151.","Nakabo, T. (Ed.). (2002) Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Matarese, A. C., Kendall Jr., A. W., Blood, D. M. & Vintner, B. M. (1989) Laboratory guide to early life history stages of northeast Pacific fishes. NOAA Technical Report NMFS, 80.","Sielfeld, K. W., Vargas F, M. & Fuenzalida F, R. (1995) Peces mesopelagicos frente a la costa norte de Chile (18 ° 25 ' - 21 ° 47 ' S). Investigaciones Marinas, Valparaiso, 23, 83 - 97.","Eduardo, L. N., Bertrand, A, Mincarone, M. M., Santos, L., Fredou, T., Assuncao, Silva, A. C., Menard, F., Schwambornm R., Le Loc'h, F. & Fredou, F. L. (2020) Hatchetfishes (Stomiiformes: Sternoptychidae) biodiversity, trophic ecology, vertical niche partitioning and functional roles in the western Tropical Atlantic. Progress in Oceanography, 187, 102389. https: // doi. org / 10.1016 / j. pocean. 2020.102389","Cruz-Acevedo, E., Tolimieri, N. & Aguirre-Villasenor, H. (2018) Deep-sea fish assemblages (300 - 2100 m) in the eastern Pacific off northern Mexico. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 592, 225 - 242. https: // doi. org / 10.3354 / meps 12502"]}

Valenciennellus tripunctulatus (Esmark, 1871). To 8 cm (3.1 in) SL (Harold in Carpenter and De Angelis 2016). Circumglobal; western Pacific Ocean north to central Japan (Aizawa in Nakabo 2002); well offshore California (e.g., Personal communication: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Fish Collection, Los Angeles, California), and east side of Isla Guadalupe, central Baja California (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California). Depth: 36���3,000 m (118���9,848 ft) (min.: Porteiro et al. 2017; max.: Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California)., Published as part of Love, Milton S., Bizzarro, Joseph J., Cornthwaite, Maria, Frable, Benjamin W. & Maslenikov, Katherine P., 2021, Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pp. 1-285 in Zootaxa 5053 (1) on page 57, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5053.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5578008, {"references":["Carpenter, K. E. & De Angelis, N. (Eds.). (2016) The Living Marine Resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bivalves, Gastropods, Hagfishes, Sharks, Batoid Fishes, and Chimaeras, Volume 3: Bony Fishes Part 1 (Elopiformes to Scorpaeniformes). Volume 4: Bony Fishes Part 2 (Perciformes to Tetradontiformes) and Sea turtles. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes, Rome, FAO.","Nakabo, T. (Ed.). (2002) Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species. Tokai University Press, Tokyo.","Porteiro, F. M., Sutton, T., Byrkjedal, I., Orlov, A. M. & Heino, M. (2017) Fishes of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge collected during the MAR-ECO cruise in June - July 2004: an annotated checklist. Arquipelago, Supplement 10."]}

Many marine organisms spend the early life history stages in neuston domain. Although the importance of ichthyoneuston, few studies were developed in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, this study aimed to improve the knowledge on ichthyoneuston of the Brazilian coast analyzing the vertical stratification and horizontal distribution of these organisms. Neuston samples were collected in daylight between 20°S and 23°S from February to April 2009 (late summer/early autumn; rainy season) and from August to September 2009 (late winter/early spring; dry season). Eggs of six taxa were identified: Anguilliformes, Engraulidae, Clupeidae, Synodontidae, Trichiuridae, and Maurolicus stehmanni (Sternoptychidae). The neustonic larval fish assemblage was composed by 40 families and 63 species. Mullidae and Myctophidae larvae were the most abundant in the rainy period while Mullidae and Mugilidae dominated in the dry season. Seasonal and spatial variation of larval fish assemblages in the neuston were structured by oceanographic features. The larval fish abundance on the outer slope stations may have been favored by the advection of an anticyclone that encompassed most of the study region during the cruise periods. In the rainy season, salinity and local depth structured the larval fish assemblage in a cross‐shelf gradient, while in the dry season the larval assemblage was structured around temperature and north‐south gradient. In the dry season, the cross‐shelf gradient was less pronounced mainly because of the low abundance and frequency of mesopelagic larvae. The low frequency and abundance of some species are probably related to the net avoidance of fish larvae during the day or dial vertical migration, as many species migrate to deeper layers during the day and ascend to neuston only at night. Nevertheless, the present study presented baseline information about the seasonal and spatial variation of the neustonic larval fish assemblage influenced by the oceanographic conditions in the Campos Basin. We recommend to additionally collect night samples to decrease larval escapement rates and to compare night versus day catches to further investigate the influence of daily migration in the neustonic larval fish in the area.

This checklist of the Mediterranean fishes of Israel enumerates 469 species which is an addition of 62 species since the previous checklist of 2005. This new checklist includes 58 Condrichthys and 411 Osteicthys species. Most newly-recorded species are of Red Sea origin (Lessepsian migrants)—38 species, 25 species are from previously poorly investigated habitats, mainly deep water, while two species reached the Mediterranean most likely by ballast water and two are aquaculture escapees. The dramatic increase in the number of Lessepsian migrants (an average of 2.5 species per year) is most likely due to the increased water influx between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, following the recent opening of the new parallel, 72 km, “new canal” and the enlargement of other parts of the Suez Canal.

International audience; Species of the family Sternoptychidae (hatchetfishes) occur worldwide and play critical roles by sequestering carbon, recycling nutrients, and acting as a key trophic link between epipelagic primary consumers and higher trophic levels in marine ecosystems. Nevertheless, basic knowledge on their ecology is still lacking and their functional ecology remains understudied with respect to composition, organization, functions and environment interactions. Here we integrated comprehensive information collected in the western Tropical Atlantic on the diversity, abundance, distribution and trophic ecology of hatchetfishes, including physicochemical features of their habitats and extensive carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data on its main prey groups. On this basis we defined five functional groups of hatchetfishes with different diet preference, isotopic composition, and vertical abundance peaks and reveal a possible high resource partitioning. Additionally, these species might have a different feeding tie chronology. Hence, hatchetfishes segregate in different ecological groups responding differently to environmental constraints including oxygen concentration and presenting diverse functional roles. As deep-sea species that migrate to epipelagic waters, hatchetfishes may play a key role in the transfer of subsurface photoassimilated carbon to deeper waters, a pathway through which the effects of climate change at the surface are transferred to the deep ocean. Moreover, as consumers of gelatinous organisms, these species convert "gelatinous energy" into "fish energy" readily usable by higher trophic levels, including endangered and commercially important species. This is a crucial trophic relationship that has been historically underestimated due to methodology limitations (e.g., quickly digested gelatinous organisms were probably underestimated in previous studies, based solely on stomach contents). Considering in ecosystem models this trophic relationship, as well as the functional organization of hatchetfishes, is important to properly answer key ecological questions including resource use, carbon transportation, and influence of mesopelagic community in climate change process.

Fishes in the mesopelagic zone (200–1000 m) have recently been highlighted for potential exploitation. Here we assess global phylogeography in Maurolicus, the Pearlsides, an ecologically important group. We obtained new sequences from mitochondrial COI and nuclear ITS-2 from multiple locations worldwide, representing 10 described species plus an unknown central South Pacific taxon. Phylogenetic analyses identified five geographically distinct groupings, three of which comprise multiple described species. Species delimitation analyses suggest these may represent four species. Maurolicus muelleri and M. australis are potentially a single species, although as no shared haplotypes are found between the two disjunct groups, we suggest maintenance of these as two species. Maurolicus australis is a predominantly southern hemisphere species found in the Pacific, Indian and southern South Atlantic Oceans, comprising five previously allopatric species. M. muelleri (previously two species) is distributed in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Maurolicus weitzmani (previously two species) inhabits the eastern equatorial Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and western North and South Atlantic. Maurolicus mucronatus is restricted to the Red Sea. No Maurolicus have previously been reported in the central South Pacific but we have identified a distinct lineage from this region, which forms a sister group to Maurolicus from the Red Sea.

The trophic ecology of Chauliodus sloani (Stomiidae) was thoroughly investigated by stomach content analysis for the first time in the Mediterranean. Overall 206 individuals (64.0–260.0 mm SL) were collected from 2013 to 2015. C. sloani can be defined a specialist predator which feeds exclusively on mesopelagic fish belonging to Gonostomatidae, Myctophidae, Paralepididae, Phosichthyidae, Sternoptychidae and Stomiidae. Gonostomatidae (%IRI = 26.02), Myctophidae (%IRI = 24.77) and Sternoptychidae (%IRI = 24.35) were important food items for C. sloani. Maurolicus muelleri (%IRI = 36.43), Cyclothone braueri (%IRI = 28.26) and Vinciguerria attenuata (%IRI = 12.97) were the most important prey. Cases of cannibalism were also observed. The examination of food size spectrum, in relation to predator length, demonstrated that C. sloani developed a feeding strategy aimed to maximizing energy input and based on the capture of few and relatively large prey: more than 50% of prey items exceeded the value of 20% for ratio between prey and predator size (SL) and the 5.4% of prey measured more than 50% of predator size. Differences in food composition across seasons were found; C. braueri and M. muelleri were more abundant in autumn, V. attenuata during spring. Prey items mainly belongs to weakly vertical migrating fauna, usually concentrated at 400 m Deep Scattering Layer.