ABSTRACT
During the 'Cantabrico 83' expedition off the coast of Asturias, 21 echinoderm species (1 crinoid, 3 holothuroids, 3 ophiuroids, 10 asteroids, and 4 echinoids) were recorded from depths of 42 to 728 m. The only such previous expedition was the 1968 cruise of the ‘Thalassa’ which collected off Galicia and, to a lesser extent, also off Asturias. In the Mediterranean, which is more shallow, species diversity is not so great and the numbers of individuals for some ‘endemics’ are much less than for mediterranean-atlantic species. This chapter presents a list of boreal or semi-boreal species that occur in the Bay of Biscay, and often in the “Mar Cantabrico”.
