The Tail of Grand Bank, southeast of Newfoundland, as a geographical boundary for continental slope fishes

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Authors: Pinhorn, A. T., Halliday, R. G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1997
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Newfoundland; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z97-805; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z97-805

Fish catches in about 4300 bottom trawl sets made in 1949 – 1991 on the continental slope (365 – 1700 m) between Labrador and the Scotian Shelf in the northwest Atlantic were examined for geographical discontinuities in species distribution and density. Eighteen of 24 taxa that were reliably identified to species showed discontinuities in the vicinity of the Tail of Grand Bank, the remaining 6 having ubiquitous distributions. Bottom temperatures, collected in conjunction with trawl sets, also showed a discontinuity associated with this location, lower temperatures occurring to the east and north than to the south and west at all depths sampled. The species with geographical limits of distribution near the Tail of Grand Bank were those with depth ranges centred on the upper slope (200 – 750 m) and some of those with shelf – upper-slope ranges (the remainder of the latter having ubiquitous geographical distributions). Species with middle- and lower-slope ranges (750 – 2250 m) did not have geographical limits of distribution at this location; nonetheless, they apparently had substantially different levels of density on either side of it.