bottom fish

The healthy system is highly energy-efficient — with sediment-dwelling invertebrates and bottom fish feeding on the rain of algae, and then birds and large-bodied mammals, such as walrus and whales, scooping them up.

Does that mean in the Pacific Northwest, the salmon, bottom fish, seabirds and marine mammals, not to mention the raw natural beauty of our beaches, are expendable?

"The bottom fish are the deep seven, the nice big red fish that you see at nice restaurants, that you see on your nice holiday platters," Richards said.

Orr and his colleagues measure the abundance of rockfish, flatfish and other "bottom fish" for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, the research arm of the NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.

Orr and his colleagues measure the abundance of rockfish, flatfish and other “bottom fish” for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, the research arm of the NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.