Age, growth, and feeding habits of lanternfish, stenobrachius leucopsarus (myctophidae), collected from the near-surface layer in the Bering Sea

Abstract

A substantial number of a lanternfish, Stenobrachius leucopsarus (Myctophidae), were collected by midwater trawls at night in the near-surface layer of the Bering Sea in the summer of 1994. Size composition, age, growth, and food habits were examined for the eastern, northern, and western areas of the Aleutian Basin. Standard length ranged between 22 and 106 mm with modes at 60, 72, and 74 mm in the eastern, northern, and western areas, respectively. Age was determined for 181 individuals by using ground otoliths and no geographical difference in length at age was observed. The growth was expressed by von Bertalanffy's equation as: Lt= 106.2 × {1-e-0.265×(t-0.432)}, where Lt is standard length in mm and t is age in years with an assumption that the fish were born in February. S. leucopsarus fed mainly on copepods, euphausiids, ostracods, and amphipods in the near-surface layer.