ABSTRACT
Some 48 species representing 18 genera of grenadiers (Bathygadidae and Macrouridae) occur, or potentially occur, in the western central North Atlantic (Table Bathygadidae & Macrouridae 1). This is around 15% of the species known to occur in the world ocean, where these families are important constituents of the deep-sea demersal ichthyofauna (particularly on the mid and lower slope-Merrett & Haedrich 1997:60-62). Adults of most species are distributed benthopelagically, a few only meso-to bathypelagically, within discrete sounding (depth) limits from the shelf/slope break to abyssal (>4000 m) depths. The young, termed alevins (Merrett 1986), are rare in collections, but are occasionally caught in plankton nets fished in the upper part of the oceanic water column (but see below). To date very few macrourid alevins are known from western central North Atlantic waters. Only nine (possibly ten) have been identified from plankton samples from the area, although alevins of nine other of these species have been described from elsewhere and figured here (Tables Bathygadidae & Macrouridae 1 & 2).
