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Distribution, Size-sex Composition, and Diet of Hunchback Sculpin Malacocottus gibber (Psychrolutidae) in the Northwestern Part of the Sea of Japan

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Abstract

In the northwestern part of the Sea of Japan, hunchback sculpin Malacocottus gibber occurs in the depth range from 160 to 940 m (maximum trawling depth) at a water temperature of 0.1–2.6°C except its atypical capture at a depth of 79 m. In the southern area (below 47°10′ N), it prefers the depth range of 300–500 m in the warm season and depths over 400 m in the cold season. In the northern area (above 47°10′ N), it tends to live at depths from 500 to 700 m throughout the year; in the cold period, its density increases in this area as a result of M. gibber approaches from smaller depths. M. gibber forms denser concentrations and begins to occur at a shallower depth under higher temperature conditions in the southern area than in the northern one. Its maximum length is 31 cm. It reaches maturation at a length of 15–18 cm; the proportion of males (in particular, adult individuals) is higher in this size group than among juveniles. On the whole, the population is dominated by females at a sex ratio of 1.5 : 1.0. M. gibber is a euryphage that feeds mainly on northern shrimp, squids of the genus Gonatopsis, polychaetes, gammarids, and euphausiids. In the spring–summer period, the average daily ration of individuals 11–25 cm long is 2.5% of body weight; no significant size-age and seasonal dynamics is observed in the feeding intensity.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to colleagues A.N. Vdovin, P.V. Kalchugin, S.F. Solomatov, M.I. Boyko, D.V. Antonenko, and P.G. Milovankin (TINRO) and Kim Sen Tok (SakhNIRO) for assistance in collecting the material. The author is particularly grateful to A.A. Balanov (National Scientific Center of Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences), who also participated in collecting the material and provided the collection of fixed fish specimens that were examined jointly with him during the preparation of this paper. We are no less grateful to B.A. Sheiko (Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences), who kindly checked the species identification of the specimens of the genus Malacocottus from the waters of the Sea of Japan, which are stored in the collection of the Zoological Institute.

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  1. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (NSCMB FEB RAS), Vladivostok, Russia

    V. V. Panchenko

  2. Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, Pacific Branch (TINRO), Vladivostok, Russia

    O. I. Pushchina

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Correspondence to V. V. Panchenko.

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Translated by D. Zabolotny

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Panchenko, V.V., Pushchina, O.I. Distribution, Size-sex Composition, and Diet of Hunchback Sculpin Malacocottus gibber (Psychrolutidae) in the Northwestern Part of the Sea of Japan. J. Ichthyol. 61, 867–880 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945221060114

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