Morphometric data of 42 deep-pelagic fish species sampled in the bay of Biscay (Northeast Atlantic ocean)

The dataset contains measurements of 29 morphological traits taken from 722 individuals belonging to 42 species of epipelagic, mesopelagic, and bathypelagic fish. The samples were collected using night-time pelagic trawling in the Bay of Biscay (Northeast Atlantic Ocean) between 2001 and 2022 during EVHOE (Evaluation Halieutique de lOuest de lEurope) scientific cruises (https://doi.org/10.18142/8). These morphological traits were recognized as playing a role in species foraging strategies (Parin, 1971; Gatz, 1979; Webb, 1984; Sibbing and Nagelkerke, 2000; Karpouzi and Stergiou, 2003; Dumay et al., 2004; Boyle and Horn, 2006; Diderich, 2006; Albouy et al., 2011; Keat-Chuan et al., 2017; Habib et al., 2019; Andresen et al., 2024). To ensure the replication of the measurements, between three and 38 individuals per species were measured. Of these 29 morphological traits, 19 were numeric (e.g. standard length, mouth width and eye diameter), seven were categorical (e.g. the presence or absence of ventral photophores or fang teeth) and two were ordinal with three categories (i.e. gill raker types and oral gape axis).