Anoplopoma fimbria
FAMILY
Anoplopomatidae
TAXONOMY
Anoplopoma fimbria Pallas, 1811, San Francisco, United States.
FAMILY
Anoplopomatidae placed either within suborder Hexagrammoidei
or suborder Anoplopomatoidei.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Blackcod, Alaska blackcod, coalfish.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Sablefishes have separate dorsal fins of equal size and a forked
tail fin on a streamlined body of gray to black color. Sablefishes
grow up to 42 in (107 cm) in length and over 125 lb (57
kg) in weight.
DISTRIBUTION
Deep, offshore waters of the North Pacific, from Baja California
(Mexico), to the Bering Sea, and across to southern
Japan. Sablefishes range thousands of miles during their
lives and occur at depths of over a thousand feet, abundant
down to 3,000 ft (914 m). Their young occur in more inshore
waters.
HABITAT
Open, deep ocean water of the North Pacific. They often feed
near the bottom in association with deep-sea fishes like rattails
and grenadiers.
BEHAVIOR
Sablefishes swim at relaxed speeds and approach and school
with fishes of other species, sometimes as a prelude to a sideways
lunge for a head-first swallowing of the unsuspecting
prey. They cannibalize their young when they are abundant in
inshore waters.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Sablefishes eat crustaceans, worms, small fishes, and any larger
fishes they can capture, which can include salmon almost as
long as the sablefish.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Spawning occurs during winter, and the pelagic eggs float in
deep water of about 3,000 ft (914 m) where seawater remains
constantly cold. Larvae hatch before functional eyes, jaws, or
gut have formed and remain deep until absorbing their large
yolk. Larvae with large pectoral fins grow in surface waters
during spring.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not listed by the IUCN. Heavily fished through the last century
by American, Canadian, Russian, and Japanese longliners
and trawlers, sablefishes are now recognized as a depleted
species. Catch quotas are now a small fraction of the peak
landings that occurred during the middle of the last century.
Russian landings from the Bering Sea were reported to have
been 38 million pounds (17,000 metric tons) during 1967.
Canadian landings at that time were lowest, around one million
pounds (454 metric tons).
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Sablefishes have been valued greatly as a smoked fish (smoked
Alaska blackcod). Their flesh is quite oily. Native North Americans
sundried the sablefish. Because they adapt well to living
in tanks and net pens, blackcod are being developed as a highvalue
species for diversification of salmon farms.
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