Fishes in Oxygen-Minimum Zones: Blood Oxygenation Characteristics

Abstract

Teleosts living in some mid-water pelagic regions of the Pacific are hypoxic or anaerobic during most of the day and become aerobic only during their diurnal migrations to and from the sea surface. The blood oxygen capacities of these fishes are among the lowest ever reported, and the oxygen dissociation curves show a very low affinity for oxygen.