How long have you been studying fish?
A: Check out the NEFSC Historical Page to see how long we have been at it.
Is life found at all depths in the ocean?
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The question was settled in 1960, when Piccard and Walsh
reported a swimming animal, resembling a sole or other flatfish about a
foot long, at 35,800 feet deep, observed from a porthole of the
bathyscapne Trieste. Some scientists believed, as recently as 1860,
that marine life could not exist below 1,800 feet. That view was
altered when a telegraph cable laid in the ocean bottom at 6,000 feet
deep was retrieved and found covered with many forms of marine life.
Deep-Sea Fish caught from NMFS RV Albatross 4
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Which is the oldest fish, as a class?
The most primitive fish-like animals are those with sucking
mouths, such as lampreys and hagfishes, whose evolution stopped short
of the development of biting jaws. Mainly bottom-dwellers, these
animals are of great interest to zoologists, for many parts of their
bodies show forms and functions that help to explain some of the
evolutionary steps leading from low to advanced life forms.
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Hagfish
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What is the world's largest fish? The smallest?
The largest is the whale shark, which grows to more than 50
feet in length and may weigh several tons; second largest is the
basking shark, which may measure 35 to 40 feet long. The smallest fish
is the tiny goby, an inhabitant of fresh-to-brackish-water lakes in
Luzon, Philippines. It seldom is longer than a half inch at adulthood,
yet is so abundant it supports a fishery.
Basking Shark Photo by Chris Gotschalk
What is the most common fish in the sea?
Any of the several species of Cyclothone, a deepwater fish
sometimes called a "bristle mouth." Rarely visible at depths that man
can readily reach, the fish is about the size of a small minnow. It is
netted at 500 meters or deeper all over the world.