Arctic ray
| Arctic ray | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arctic ray ( Amblyraja hyperborea ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Amblyraja hyperborea | ||||||||||||
| ( Collett , 1879) |
The arctic ray ( Amblyraja hyperborea ) is a cartilaginous fish from the family real rays (Rajidae). It occurs mainly in arctic waters and adjacent marine areas, but has also been recorded in warmer areas of the Atlantic and Pacific and the Indian Ocean .
description
The species is characterized by a relatively short tail and a pointed snout. The top is brown-gray to blue-gray and the bottom is usually lighter with darker areas. The dark areas predominate in individual specimens. The maximum length is 106 centimeters.
distribution
The main distribution area extends in the Atlantic from the Shetland Islands , Faroe Islands , Iceland and the Davis Strait between Greenland and Canada over North Greenland and Svalbard to the Barents Sea . Individuals have also been discovered in the southern Atlantic on the southern tip of Africa. There are other occurrences in the southeast Indian Ocean near Australia and in the Pacific around New Zealand . Specimens have even been caught in warm seas near Costa Rica , Panama , Colombia and Ecuador .
behavior
The arctic ray mostly stays on the bottom and prefers soft seabeds on the continental shelf. The species has been recorded on submarine slopes at depths between 140 and 2,500 m, especially between 300 and 1,500 m. The water temperature can drop to −1 ° C in these areas. With the exception of the Central American population, the species rarely stays in areas that are warmer than 4 ° C. The diet consists mostly of bony fish as well as other inhabitants of the seabed.
Females lay eggs but mating occurs in which the male hugs the female. The egg capsules, which can contain several eggs, are 8–13 cm long and 5–8 cm wide. They have hard spines at each end and are deposited on sandy or muddy ground. Fertilization and oviposition take place at temperatures from 0 ° C.
Danger
The arctic ray is sometimes caught in the nets of deep-sea trawlers as bycatch , which according to current knowledge has not yet influenced the population. The IUCN therefore lists the species as Least Concern.
Individual evidence
- ^ DW Kulka, AS Barker, P. Pasolini & A. Orlov, 2007. Amblyraja hyperborea . In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. Retrieved December 25, 2010
literature
- Nielsen, Lars Svedberg, Ulf: Våra fiskar . Prisma, Stockholm 2006, ISBN 91-518-4572-5 , p. 52 .
- Curry-Lindahl, Kai : Våra fiskar: havs- och sötvattensfiskar i Norden och övriga Europa . Norstedts, Stockholm 1985, ISBN 91-1844202-1 , p. 141, 144, 337 .
Web links
- Amblyraja hyperborea (Collett, 1879) (Eng.)ITIS. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
- Arctic ray on Fishbase.org (English)
- Amblyraja hyperborea in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2010. Posted by: Kulka, DW, Barker, AS, Pasolini, P. & Orlov, A., 2007. Retrieved on December 24 of 2010.