black oreo of the deep-water trawl zone

Size
Length: 30–40 cm, Weight: 0.5–1 kg
Lifespan
80–100 years
Diet
Feeds on small crustaceans, squid and mid-water fish. Hovers in deep water picking off passing prey. Uses large mouth to suck in food items. Feeds opportunistically on whatever drifts within range.
Habitat
Inhabits deep continental slopes and seamounts between 400 and 1,200 metres depth. Prefers cold and stable waters near seafloor. Often found in large aggregations around underwater mountains and submarine ridges.
Range
Found in deep waters around New Zealand including Chatham Rise, Campbell Plateau and subantarctic islands. Extends from North Island to Auckland Islands. Also recorded from Australia and Southern Ocean.
Endemism
Native
Main Threats
Commercial bottom trawling on seamounts is primary threat. Also threatened by bycatch in orange roughy and oreo fisheries. Habitat destruction from deep-sea trawl gear impacts recovery. Slow reproduction makes population rebound difficult.
Population
Population declines have occurred on heavily fished seamounts. Species remains common on unfished or protected seamounts. Taken as bycatch in target fisheries for other deep-sea species. Quotas and area closures help protect stocks.
Conservation Status
Not Threatened
One of the longest living fish in the deep sea. This is a fish that can live for nearly a century. It survives for almost one hundred years, growing at an incredibly slow pace. It lives in the cold, dark waters around seamounts. There it gathers in dense schools. These schools have made it vulnerable to bottom trawling. Its flesh is firm and white. It is valued in the seafood trade. A fish that grows slower than a tree. The body is deep and compressed, with a large head and a terminal mouth. The eyes are large. They are adapted to the dim light of the deep. Colour is a uniform dark brown or black. This provides camouflage against the dark seafloor. The scales are large and rough. The fins are delicate and spiny. It looks like a creature built for pressure, not speed. It is a deep-sea predator, hovering in the water column near seamounts. It feeds on small crustaceans, squid and mid-water fish. It uses its large mouth to suck in prey that drifts within range. It does not chase. It waits. Patience is the primary hunting strategy. Energy conservation is key in the cold depths. Growth is very slow. It adds only a few centimetres per year. Maturity comes late, perhaps at 20 to 30 years of age. It can live for a century. This slow pace of life makes it vulnerable to overfishing. A population that is depleted can take decades to recover. There is no quick bounce back from heavy extraction. Bottom trawling on seamounts has reduced populations in some areas. The trawl nets scrape the seafloor. They destroy the fragile coral and sponge communities that provide habitat. The black oreo is caught as bycatch in fisheries targeting orange roughy. It is collateral damage in the hunt for other species. The deep sea is dark. The black oreo hovers over a seamount, dark brown and still, part of a dense school. The trawl net drags. The oreo is caught. It does not know it is a centenarian. It does not know it is vulnerable. It just wanted to hover. The centenarians of the deep, living for a century in the cold, dark waters. The black oreo is one of them. It carries on until the net arrives.