Bathylagus pacificus Gilbert 1890

Bathylagus pacificus Gilbert, 1890.

Pacific Blacksmelt or Slender Blacksmelt. To about 25 cm (10 in) SL (Fitch and Lavenberg 1968). Southern Japan and Sea of Okhotsk (Kanayama in Amaoka et al. 1983) to southern Bering Sea to off Bahía Magdalena (24°10.9’N, 113°06.9’W), southern Baja California (Personal Communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California), Gulf of California (Mecklenburg et al. 2002), and 02°36’N, 112°57’W (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California). Adults generally in lower mesopelagic and bathypelagic and not ascending to epipelagic depths; depth: 150 to perhaps about 4,100 m (492–13,448 ft) (min.: Mecklenburg et al. 2002; max.: Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California). The maximum depth of 7,700 m (25,256 ft) (Mecklenburg et al. 2002) is considered unlikely and probably reflects “incidental catches during trawl hauling to the surface” (Fujii et al. 2010).