Distribution and Habitat
Native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the common torpedo occurs from the Bay of Biscay to Angola, including all around the Mediterranean Sea. A single record from Belgian waters was most likely erroneous. In European waters, it is encountered less frequently than other electric ray species. This species prefers warmer temperatures. It is rare north of the Mediterranean, and within the Mediterranean it is more common off North Africa than off southern Europe. The common torpedo is a bottom-dweller usually found close to shore at depths of 2–70 m (6.6–230 ft), though it has occasionally been reported from as deep as 400 m (1,300 ft). It inhabits soft-bottomed habitats such as sandy flats and seagrass beds.
Read more about this topic: Common Torpedo
Famous quotes containing the words distribution and/or habitat:
“The question for the country now is how to secure a more equal distribution of property among the people. There can be no republican institutions with vast masses of property permanently in a few hands, and large masses of voters without property.... Let no man get by inheritance, or by will, more than will produce at four per cent interest an income ... of fifteen thousand dollars] per year, or an estate of five hundred thousand dollars.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Nature is the mother and the habitat of man, even if sometimes a stepmother and an unfriendly home.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)