Seamounts: Biodiversity and Fisheries
Taxonomy and Biology of Seamount Fishes
Rainer Froese and Arlene Sampang
Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften and WorldFish CentreAbstract
This study presents a preliminary annotated checklist, a preliminary bibliography, and an analysis of current knowledge of seamount fishes. Based on surveys carried out on sixty seamounts 535 species in 130 Families, 29 Orders and 4 Classes are recognized as seamount fishes. Sufficient information for sustainable management such as growth, maturity, fecundity, and diet is available for only 12 (2%) of the species. Yet 151 (28%) of the species are known to be exploited commercially. Most of the species for which data are available are of low or very low productivity and resilience to exploitation. Fitness strategies of seamount fishes are discussed and compared. The number of species in each ecological niche is low on seamounts signifying vulnerability at the ecosystem level. Of the six seamount fishes evaluated for the purposes of the 2000 IUCN Red List, one was critically endangered, two were vulnerable and three were of lower risk, near-threatened, while other seamount fishes have not yet been assessed. In this study, 62 (12%) seamount fish species are reported from only one seamount, suggesting a high rate of endemism.
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Appendices 1-6
1. Preliminary annotated checklist
of seamount fishes
2. Preliminary list of seamount
fishes with reported seamounts
3. Preliminary checklist of fishes
by seamount
4. Preliminary list of commercially
important seamount fishes
5. Reference numbers with citations
6. Preliminary bibliography of
seamount