BIOLOGIYA MORYA, 2015, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 143-145

Pigment spots on skin as a phene of the North Atlantic population of the beaked redfish, Sebastes mentella Travin, 1951 (Scorpaenidae)

© 2015 Yu. I. Bakay

N.M. Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography, Murmansk 183038

E-mail:

The spatio-temporally stable and sex-dependent occurrence and localization of pigment spots on skin of the beaked redfish Sebastes mentella provide grounds for considering them a phene of the pelagic group of S. mentella within its North Atlantic population. The characteristics of this phene indicate geographical and bathymetrical unity of this group and also migration of a part of its individuals to the pelagic zone of the Norwegian Sea.

Key words: pigment spots on skin, beaked redfish, Sebastes mentella, North Atlantic.