2025/01/01 by Nathanael John Tabert, Callum Rive, Brian Timmer +3 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies #Marine and fisheries research
paper · doi:10.1139/cjz-2024-0196
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
The coastal shelves of the Northeast Pacific have supported fisheries for centuries, resulting in numerous studies on the ecology of target species. However, our understanding of species that are not actively targeted by fisheries, such as Pacific hagfish Eptatretus stoutii (Lockington, 1878), is not as resolved. We conducted stable isotope analysis on Pacific hagfish from an experimental fishery within three distinct habitats along Canada’s west coast—a narrow fjord, a sound, and a continental shelf—revealing intraspecific variability in δ 13 C and δ 15 N isotopic signatures. Hagfish collected from the fjord had the lowest δ 13 C and δ 15 N isotopic signatures, those in the sound had intermediate values, and those from offshore on the continental shelf had the highest isotopic signatures. We propose that this trend is the result of varying amounts of terrestrial nutrient inputs based on proximity to shore, in addition to variable chemoautotrophic activity. Terrestrial nutrients are introduced into marine food webs through runoff and are known to exhibit more depleted isotopic signatures than marine-based nutrients. Chemoautotrophy also produces low δ 13 C and δ 15 N signatures. These results provide novel insight on stable isotope signatures in Pacific hagfish in British Columbia and may act to inform future research on this species.