Benthic deep-sea fauna in the Sea of Kumano, Mie Prefecture, Japan

In this study, we had investigated the benthic deep-sea fauna using the dredge and beam trawl in the region from the continental shelf to the continental slope of the Sea of Kumano, Mie Prefecture, during the No．1722 research voyage of the training ship Seisui-Maru of Mie University. The survey was carried out at 16 stations covering a depth range of 113－1059 m. The results of the survey, 14 phyla had been confirmed. Arthropod, echinoderm, annelid and molluscan macrobenthos were collected from all of the stations. The phylum number of each station was in the range from 4 to 11. The largest number of phyla had been confi rmed at St．10D of boulders bottom（768－800 m depth）. Meiobenthos confi rmed in our sample were kinorhynchs, nematodes, tardigrades, loriciferans and small arthropods such as tanaidaceans, copepods and cumaceans. In addition to free-living species, parasitic copepods, isopods, platyhelminthes, acanthocephalans and nematodes had been found in fish, crustaceans and polychaetes.