An introduction to the study of fishes

by Albert C. L. G. Günther

Figs. 109 and 110.—Antennarius candimaculatus, a pelagic fish, from the Indian Ocean.

CHAPTER XXI.
THE FISHES OF THE DEEP SEA.

The knowledge of the existence of deep-sea fishes is one of the recent discoveries of ichthyology. It is only about twenty years ago that, from the evidence afforded by the anatomical structure of a few singular fishes obtained in the North Atlantic, an opinion was expressed that these fishes inhabited great depths of the ocean, and that their organisation was specially adapted for living under the physical abyssal conditions. These fishes agreed in the character of their connective tissue, which was so extremely weak as to yield to, and to break under, the slightest pressure, so that the greatest difficulty is experienced to preserve their body in its continuity. Another singular circumstance was, that some of the specimens were picked up floating on the surface of the water, having met their deaths whilst engaged in swallowing or digesting another fish not much inferior or even superior in size to themselves.

The first peculiarity was accounted for by the fact that, if those fishes really inhabited the great depths supposed, their removal from the enormous pressure under which they lived would be accompanied by such an expansion of gases within their tissues as to rupture them, and to cause a separation of the parts which had been held together by the pressure. The second circumstance was explained thus:—A raptatorial fish organised to live at a depth of between 500 and 800 fathoms seizes another usually inhabiting a depth of between 300 and 500 fathoms. In its struggles to escape, the fish seized, nearly as large or strong as the attacking fish, carries the latter out of its depth into a higher stratum, where the diminished pressure causes such an expansion of gases as to make the destroyer with its victim rise with increasing rapidity towards the surface, which they reach dead or in a dying condition. Specimens in this condition are not rarely picked up; and as, of course, comparatively few can by accident fall into the hands of naturalists, occurrences of the kind related must happen very often.

Thus, the existence of fishes peculiarly adapted for the deep sea has been a fact maintained and admitted for some time in Ichthyology; and as the same genera and species were found at very distant parts of the ocean, it was further stated that those Deep-sea fishes were not limited in their range, and that, consequently, the physical conditions of the depths of the ocean must be the same or nearly the same over the whole globe. That Deep-sea fishes were not of a peculiar order, but chiefly modified forms of surface types, was another conclusion arrived at from the sporadic evidence collected during the period which preceded systematic deep-sea dredging.

However, nothing was positively known as to the exact depths inhabited by those fishes until observations were made during the voyage of H.M.S. “Challenger.” The results obtained by this expedition afforded a surer and more extended basis for our knowledge of Deep-sea fishes.

The physical conditions of the deep sea, which must affect the organisation and distribution of fishes, are the following:—

1. Absence of sunlight. Probably the rays of the sun do not penetrate to, and certainly do not extend beyond, a depth of 200 fathoms, therefore we may consider this to be the depth where the Deep-sea fauna commences. Absence of light is, of necessity, accompanied by modifications of the organs of vision and by simplification of colours.

2. The absence of sunlight is in some measure compensated for by the presence of phosphorescent light, produced by many marine animals, and also by numerous Deep-sea fishes.

3. Depression and equality of the temperature. At a depth of 500 fathoms the temperature of the water is already as low as 40° Fahr., and perfectly independent of the temperature of the surface-water; and from the greatest depths upwards to about 1000 fathoms the temperature is uniformly but a few degrees above freezing-point. Temperature, therefore, ceases to offer an obstacle to the unlimited dispersal of Deep-sea fishes.