Distribution of the early-life phase of the Antarctic squid Galiteuthis glacialis in relation to the hydrology of the Southern Ocean in the sector 15° to 30°E

• Published in: Marine Biology
• Main Authors: Rodhouse, P. G., Clarke, M. R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 1986
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Squid; DML; Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/34082/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/34082/1/869.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428629

During R.R.S. "Discovery" Cruise 100 in the Southern Ocean (1979), 620 specimens of the Antarctic cranchiid squid Galiteuthis glacialis (Chun) were caught in the RMT8 opening-closing net, to the south of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF). The catch was dominated by individuals < 20 mm dorsal mantle length (DML) and, apart from two specimens, the rest of the catch was < 60 mm DML. Two larger squid (255 mm DML) were both immature and apparently female. The species is concentrated at a depth of 300 to 400 m; there is evidence of ontogenetic spreading and a shift in the modal depth of the population from the 300 to 400 m horizon in daylight to the 200 to 300 m horizon in darkness. The collection confirms the circumpolar distribution of the species and supports previous evidence that it rarely, if ever, occurs to the north of the APF. As in Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the only other species of cranchiid squid known to occur south of the APF, the early-life phase of G. glacialis is concentrated in the upper zone of the "warm deep water" beneath the Antarctic surface layer where, putatively, there is a zone of enhanced biological activity.