DISTRIBUTION AND MIGRATION OF THE BARENTS SEA COD, DEPENDING UPON ITS FEEDING IN COLD YEARS (Raspredelenie i Migratsii Barentsevomorskoi Treski v Zavisimosti ot yee Otkorma v Usloviyakh Kholodnykh Let),

The period of fattening, composition of food, intensity of feeding, as well as migration to wintering places in the southern Barents Sea and in the Bjornoya-Spitsbergen region are diverse. The fattening period is shorter in cold years than in warm years. In the southern part of the sea, the fattening period begins in January-February, but in the Bjornoya-Spitsbergen region in May-June. In the southern part of the Barents Sea the most active feeding period is in April-May, but in the northwestern region in June-July. In the southern part one can observe a certain decrease in feeding intensity during June-August. In September, a second increase in the intensity of feeding takes place. In the northwestern region, the cod feeds intensely throughout the summer-autumn period. In cold years the cod inhabits the southern region throughout the summer, mainly in the Murman coastal zone. The occurrence of cod on the summer- autumn feeding grounds depends on the distribution of food objects. In September-October, by the end of fattening period prior to migration to wintering grounds, the cod forms dense concentrations. By analyzing the behavior of cod in cold years it is seen that in 1956 and 1963 the cod reacted swiftly to the cooling and departed far west to wintering grounds. These data enable us to assume that the generations that appeared and spent their first years of life under cold conditions, are less sensitive to water temperature changes than the cod born in warm years.

Trans. of Polyarnyi Nauchno-Issledovatelskii Institut Morskogo Rybnogo Khozyaistva i Okeanograffii. Nauchno-Technicheskii Byulleten (USSR) n11 p51-71 1968, by M. Slessers.