Patagonian toothfish
species of fish
The Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides), also known as Chilean sea bass and mero, is a species of notothen found in cold waters (1–4 °C or 34–39 °F) between depths of 45 and 3,850 m (150 and 12,630 ft) in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most Subantarctic islands.
The average weight of a commercially caught Patagonian toothfish is 7–10 kg (15–22 lb), depending on the fishery, with large adults occasionally exceeding 100 kg (220 lb). They are thought to live up to 50 years and to reach a length up to 2.3 m (7.5 ft). Several commercial fisheries exist for Patagonian toothfish, which are detailed below.
A close relative, the Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni), is found farther south around the edges of the Antarctic shelf, and a Marine Stewardship Council-certified fishery is active in the Ross Sea; it is also sometimes marketed as Chilean sea bass.
Taxonomy
The Patagonian toothfish was first formally described in 1898 by the Swedish zoologist Fredrik Adam Smitt with the type locality given as Puerto Toro at 55°24'S, 68°17'W on the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego. Smitt also described the new genus Dissostichus for this new species, meaning that the Patagonian toothfish is the type species of this genus by monotypy. The specific name eleginoides means having the form of, i.e. having a similar shape to, Eleginops.
Description
The Patagonian toothfish has a streamlined, fusiform body that has a depth that fits into its standard length 5 to 6.4 times.
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This entry incorporates text from “Patagonian toothfish” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.