Description of ichthyofauna composition in the Japan Sea

Species composition of fish is decribed for the Japan Sea on the data of Pacific Fish.Res.Center (TINRO), Russia (about 10,000 bottom and pelagic research trawlings at the depth 5-750 m obtained in 1980-2005), National Fish.Res.Dev.Inst. (NFRDI), Rep.Korea (about 100 research cruises conducted since 1994 with trawling at the depth 30-2550 m), coastal fishery statistics, and cited data. All past revisions in the taxonomy are registered. Some general ecological and zoogeographical features of the Japan Sea are revealed. In total, 962 fish species dwell in the Japan Sea, and 738 of them (77 %) are registered in the EEZ of Russia and Korea. In the analyzed TINRO and NFRDI surveys, 419 fish species were found, mainly in research trawls (389) and patially only in commercial catches in coastal waters (30). On the other hand, 872 fish species (91 % of the total list) occur in the EEZ of Japan. The species belong to 42 orders (Perciformes absolutely dominates among them by number of species - 432) and 215 families (the most numerous are Cottidae - 51 species, Gobiidae - 48 species, and Stichaeidae - 41 species). From zoogeographic point of view, they have mostly tropical-subtropical (488 species), lowboreal-subtropical (210 species), and lowboreal Asian (128 species) origin; only 14 species are endemics of the Japan Sea, 17 species are endemics of the Japan and Okhotsk Seas, and 171 species are endemics of the southern part of the North-West Pacific (Japan Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Pacific coast of Japan). The major part of fish species in the Japan Sea inhabit mainly sublittoral (28 %) and elittoral (28 %) biotopes; diversity of stenobathic species decreases both shoreward and toward the continental slope. Bottom (46 %) and near-bottom (26 %) species absolutely prevail over pelagic ones (20 %), whereas 8 % of the species are considered as bottom-pelagic ones.