Ray’s Bream is a typical member of the family Bramidae, characterised by their deep, laterally compressed bodies, covered in large, brightly silvered scales. The pelvic fins are small, but the pectorals are very long and blade-like, while the caudal fin is long and deeply cleft. Internally, the gut is short, and provided with a few very large pyloric caecae.
Ray’s bream is found commonly in deep-water in the Western Mediterranean, in the Atlantic off Madeira, Spain and Portugal, and each summer migrates north, to the west of Ireland, as far as Norway. It is known to be predated on, in these mesopelagic depths, by sharks includingCentrophorus squamosus
