Pacific Hagfish, Eptatretus stoutii, Spotted Ratfish, Hydrolagus colliei, and Scavenger Activity on Tethered Carrion in Subtidal Benthic Communities off Western Vancouver Island

Vertebrate carcasses provide an episodic but highly important food source for benthic organisms, particularly at depths beyond the zones of primary productivity (Lalli and Parsons 2001). Such carcasses have recently become of interest due to increasing discards in fisheries as this may shift benthic community structure (Collins et al. 1999). Species such as ratfish and benthic sharks as well as crustaceans may benefit from such food falls (Collins et al. 1999; Tamburri and Barry 1999). There are few descriptions of the scavenging community or the interactions among species around these carcasses. We anchored carrion at two depths (10 m, 50 m) in Barkley Sound, west Vancouver Island, British Columbia and monitored the carrion with a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV). We provide here an examination of scavenger diversity, abundance and interactions among species during daylight and darkness.