Catfish - King of the sea

Abstract

During an acoustic tagging experiment on cod in the Barents Sea in March 1995 a hierarchy between different fish species was revealed, and the catfish (Anarhichas sp.) was observed to be dominant in relation to cod and haddock. When catfish are present at the fishing grounds, the dominant feeding behaviour of this species might reduce efficiency on other species. If longline catch data are used for stock assessment purposes, the catfish population might therefore be overestimated relative to other fish species.