EZOA – a catalogue of EBHIS H i-detected galaxies in the northern Zone of Avoidance

We present a catalogue of galaxies in the northern Zone of Avoidance (ZoA), extracted from the shallow version of the blind HI survey with the Effelsberg 100m radio telescope, EBHIS, that has a sensitivity of 23 mJy beam-1 at 10.24 km s-1 velocity resolution. The catalogue comprises 170 detections in the region delta >= -5 degrees and vertical bar b vertical bar < 6 degrees. About a third of the detections (N = 67) have not been previously recorded in HI. While 29 detections have no discernible counterpart at any wavelength other than HI, 48 detections (28 per cent) have a counterpart visible on optical or near-infrared images but are not recorded as such in the literature. New HI detections were found as close as 7.5 Mpc (EZOA J2120+45), and at the edge of the Local Volume, at 10.1Mpc, we have found two previously unknown dwarf galaxies (EZOA J0506+31 and EZOA J0301+56). Existing large-scale structures crossing the northern ZoA have been established more firmly by the new detections, with the possibility of new filaments. We conclude that the high rate of 39 per cent new HI detections in the northern ZoA, which has been extensively surveyed with targeted observations in the past, proves the power of blind HI surveys. The full EBHIS survey, which will cover the full northern sky with a sensitivity comparable to the HIPASS survey of the southern sky, is expected to add many new detections and uncover new structures in the northern ZoA.