Pighead prickleback COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 4

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Distribution

Pighead pricklebacks are known from three areas (Fig. 3): (1) In the Sea of Okhotsk area, they are recorded near Hokkaido, Peter the Great Bay (Schmidt 1950). (2) In the Bering Sea area, populations are found in Bristol Bay (Evermann and Goldsborough 1907) and near Adak Island, Chukchi Sea, Kvichak, Bay, Norton Sound and between Nome and Safety Sound. A single specimen is recorded from Yakutat, Gulf of Alaska (Mecklenburg 1994ms; 2002). (3) The Beaufort region comprises the Canadian distribution, with populations known to exist from west of the Mackenzie River Delta at Phillips Bay in the Yukon Territory, and east near the Beaufort Sea, namely Kugmallit Bay, Tuktoyaktuk Harbour, Hutchison Bay, and Liverpool Bay including Wood Bay (Figs. 4, figure5 & figure6, also see Collections Examined).

Figure 3. Map showing global distributions of Acantholumpenus mackayi between Beaufort, Bering, Okhotsk and Japan seas:
“A” refers to Adak Island;
“BB” = Bristol Bay, Alaska;
“CS” = Chukchi Seas;
“NS” = Norton Sound, Alaska;
“PB” = Phillips Bay, Yukon;
“SO” = Sea of Okhotsk; “SJ” = Sea of Japan;
“TK, L” = Tuktoyaktuk and Liverpool Bay, NWT;
“Y” = Yakutat, Alaska. 
See Mecklenburg (2002) for details on Distributions.

Canadian range

The spotty distribution of pigheads found in Canada may reflect habitat requirements, or may be due to incomplete sampling; pighead pricklebacks are not usually the focus of Arctic fishery research and inventory. In Liverpool Bay, Bond and Erickson (1992) found great variation in numbers between sites, suggesting habitat limitations.

Figure 4. Map showing Canadian distributions (see black dots, upper left):
"P" indicates Phillips Bay (Yukon),
"T" = Tuktoyaktuk, Tuktoyaktuk Harbour and Kugmallit bay (NWT) areas,
"L" = Liverpool Bay (including Wood Bay, NWT).
Distributions adapted from Species at Risk (see Environment Canada 2002) and known museum records (Collections examined & Table 1).

Figure 5. Depth contours in Tuktoyaktuk Harbour showing protected deeper habitat, where seawater is presumably trapped during spring flood of the Mackenzie River where pighead pricklebacks can presumably find refuge (see Hopky and Ratynski 1983). Light shaded portions indicate depths of 0 to 5 m; moderate shading, 5 to 10 m, dark shading, 10 to 20 m. White areas enclosed by dark shading range between 20 and 26 m. Map redrawn from Canadian Hydrographic Service (2002 - map # 7685).

Figure 6. Canadian distribution of pighead prickleback (Acantholumpenus mackayi) off the Mackenzie River estuary (Yukonand Northwest Territories). Map is adapted from Macdonald and Carmack (1991) and shows depth contours of the Beaufort Sea in meters. Shaded areas near Hutchison Bay, Kugmallit Bay, Liverpool Bay, Wood Bay and Tuktoyaktuk Harbour indicate known Canadian species distribution.