Distribution
P. . antarctica is widely distributed in all
regIons of the Antarctic Ocean. It has been
recorded by Fontaine (1988), often in large
numbers, in deep-water samples up to 1500m
in the Southern Ocean and the Ross Sea. It
was also recorded as one of the dominant
deep-water copepods (lOOOm) of Croker
Passage, Antarctic Peninsula (Hopkins 1985).
Ward and Wood (1988) found that its distribution centred around the 250-500 m
depth. The species also occurs North of the
Convergence in deep waters of the Atlantic
Pacific and Indian Oceans. Park (1978)
Paraeuchaeta antarctica
177
reports it for the SW Atlantic and Bradford
et al. (1983) for the SW Pacific off New
Zealand .. Marin. and. Antezana (1985)
reported It for ChIlean fjords and maintained
that its presence indicates the incursion of
Antarctic zooplankton into the area. The
species has yet to be recQrded for the
Argentinian coast. Mazzocchi and Ianora
(1991) recorded low densities of P. antarctica, mainly copepodites, in the central and
western stations of the Straits of Magellan. In
the present study, it was widely distributed
from the surface to maximum depths throughout the Straits.