Island in the Stream: Oceanography and Fisheries of the Charleston Bump
<em>Abstract.</em>—Recent observations from trawling and submersibles have shown several species of cephalopods to be common in slope-waters of the western North Atlantic Ocean. The slope-water cephalopods include the commercially-important genus <em> Illex</em>, taxonomy of which remains troubling in the area off Charleston because of the possibility that <em> I. oxygonius </em>is a hybrid. Other common species include another ommastrephid <em> Ornithoteuthis antillarum</em>, single species of <em> Mastigoteuthis</em>, <em> Brachioteuthis</em>, and <em> Pholidoteuthis</em>, several cranchiids, histioteuthids, and sepiolids, two octopodids, the pelagic incirrate octopod <em> Haliphron atlanticus</em>, and the cirrate octopod <em> Stauroteuthis syrtensis</em>. Behavior and distribution of these species contrast with those of truly open-ocean cephalopods, which also are present in slope waters. In-situ observations have shown that several of the squids are more strongly associated with the bottom than was previously supposed and that many of the slope-water cephalopods exhibit unexpected behaviors.