Jan. 9, 2006 — Several species of Atlantic deep-water fish have been so ravaged by overfishing that they should be classed as critically endangered, a rating that is even higher than for the giant panda and Bengal tiger, a study says.

Canadian biologists carried out an assessment of five deep-sea species to see how these fish were affected by a shift to deep trawling prompted by the collapse of shallow-water coastal fisheries.

Over 17 years, the five species declined by at least 87 percent and up to 98 percent, the scientists found.

"They meet the (World Conservation Union, IUCN) criteria for being critically endangered," the paper, published on Thursday in the British weekly science journal Nature, said.

"Our results indicate that urgent action is needed for the sustainable management of deep-sea fisheries."

The five species studied ranged from the common to the rare.

They were the roundnose grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris); onion-eye grenadier (Macrourus berglax); blue hake (Antimora rostrata); spiny eel (Notacanthus chemnitzi); and spinytail skate (Bathyraja spinicauda).

Population estimates were made from trawling surveys made by scientists in Canadian waters from 1978-94.

In addition, there was survey data for two of the species (the roundnose and onion-eye grenadiers) for the period from 1995-2003. In these two cases, the decline over the 26-year study period was 99.6 and 93.3 percent, respectively.

The authors, led by Jennifer Devine of Memorial University at St. John's, Newfoundland, said the findings provided powerful backing for anecdotal evidence that deep-water trawling is having a catastrophic impact on deep species.

"Deep-sea fish are highly vulnerable to disturbance because of their late maturation, extreme longevity, low fedundity and slow growth," they noted.

Some species cluster together in large numbers for spawning, which also makes them more susceptible to overtrawling.

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