INFORMATION ON SPAWNING AND FECUNDITY OF ICEFISH CHIONOBATHYSCUS DEWITTI

On the basis of the analysis of the biological material collected by one of the authors during fishery for Antarctic toothfish from 2002 till 2008 on different grounds of the Antarctic Zone (Collaboration Sea, D’Urville Sea, Ross Sea and Amundsen Sea), the assumption was advanced regarding the long spawning period of deep-water icefish Chionobathyscus dewitti during spring-and-summer period of the southern hemisphere. Higher numbers of individuals in prespawning and spawning state were noted on underwater mountains and banks on depths more than 1000 m, than on the continental slope grounds of similar depth. The data on fecundity were obtained, the absolute individual fecundity can be 2.3-6.1 thousand of eggs and the relative one is 3-12 eggs per 1 g of body weight. The structure of the envelope of maturing oocytes allows considering icefish to have bottom eggs. Keywords: deep-water icefish, body length, gonad weight, GSI, sex ratio, spawning, depth, area, season, vitellogeneous oocytes, yolk vesicle stage, yolk globules stage, emptied follicles, residual oocytes, fecundity.