The Barents Sea Ecoregion a Biodiversity Assessment
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A BIODIVERSITY ASSESSMENT OF THE BARENTS SEA ECOREGION The Barents Sea Ecoregion A biodiversity assessment Edited by: Tore Larsen, Dag Nagoda and Jon Roar Andersen Text by: Tore Larsen, with contributions from Andrei Boltunov, Nina Denisenko, Stanislav Denisenko, Maria Gavrilo, Vadim Mokievsky, Dag Nagoda, Vassily Spiridonov, Cecilie von Quillfeldt and the participants at the St. Petersburg biodiversity workshop 12-13 May 2001 (see list p. 81). Maps and GIS data by: Tore Larsen Bathymetry provided by: The International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) Lay-out by: Anne Bjerkebro and Nina Jensen Cover photos: Common eider. Photo: WWF / Mauri Rautkari Harp seal pup. Photo: WWF-Canon / Chris Martin Bahr Wild salmon. Photo: WWF-Canon / Jo Benn Sperm whales. Photo: WWF-Canon / Hal Whitehead Polar bear on ice. Photo: WWF-Canon / Jack Stein Grove Ivory gull. Photo: WWF-Canon / Peter Prokorsch Harp seal. Photo: WWF / Kjell-Arne Larsson Puffin. Photo: WWF-Canon / Michèle D. Praz Barnacle goose. Photo: WWF-Canon / Klein & Hubert Walrus. Photo: WWF / Fritz Pölking Minke whale. Photo: WWF-Canon / Morten Lindhard Walrus colony. Photo: Staffan Widstrand Puffin Shetland. Photo: Peter Prokorsch Winged Snail. Photo: Bjørn Gulliksen Seabed community. Photo: Bjørn Gulliksen. Harbour seal pups. Photo: WWF / Jan Van De Kam Sepiola atlantica. Photo: Kåre Telnes Protanthea simplex. Photo: Erling Svensen Beluga. Photo: WWF-Canon / Kevin Schafer Amphipode. Photo: Erling Svensen Storm. Photo: Tore Larsen Preface photos: Rasmus Hansson. Photo: Arnodd Håpnes Samantha Smith. Photo: Advokatbladet Igor Chestin. Photo: WWF-Russia / Vladimir Filonov Bearded seal Svalbard. Photo:Peter Prokorsch Lophelia reef. Photo:Erling Svensen Common guillemot. Photo: Peter Prokorsch Anemone. Photo: Kåre Telnes Puffin. Photo: WWF-Canon / Michèle D. Praz Wild salmon. Photo: WWF-Canon / Jo Benn Polar bear. Photo: Staffan Widstrand II – A biodiversity assessment of the Barents Sea Ecoregion “…the Global 200 initiative [is] the most comprehensive strategy to date for the conservation of the world’s biodiversity. The Global 200 Ecoregions, representing a wide range of terrestrial, marine and aquatic environments, were selected with a valuable new set of multiple criteria worthy of adoption by other scientists and conservation professionals.” Dr E.O. Wilson, Professor, Harvard University “The Global 200 map marks an important contribution to the cause of conserving the world’s biological diversity. I attach great importance to international action on this issue, for it is a quintessentially global challenge: no country is immune from the effects of biodiversity loss, and no country can do without the benefits of cooperation in combating the threats that we face.” Kofi A. Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations “We all agree that time is running out for conserving the world’s extraordinary biodiversity. By highlighting the world’s urgent conservation priorities, the Global 200 analysis is an invaluable tool for the international community that can help set priorities for conserving the world’s most distinctive and outstanding terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecoregions.” James D Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank A biodiversity assessment of the Barents Sea Ecoregion – PREFACE PREFACE This assessment of the biodiversity of the Barents Sea Ecoregion is part of a major initiative launched by the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Ecoregion Conservation (ERC) strategy. The basis for this strategy is the increasing recognition that nature conservation as well as sustainable use of natural resources is best managed on large scales, based on as complete ecological units as possible. Both natural processes and many threats to biodiversity operate on larger scales than single sites, and traditional nature management approaches and small conservation areas have too often proven to be insufficient to protect the biodiversity in a region. Ecoregion conservation aims toward nature management on a scale that 1) coincides to a large degree with the scale at which natural ecological processes in the area operate; 2) deals with the full range of biodiversity; and 3) enables us to deal with threats on several levels. To reach our goal of maintaining biodiversity for future generations, WWF considers it vital that cooperation is sought with as many partners as possible and that information about biodiversity is made available to all stakeholders and users of natural resources. The Biodiversity Assessment of the Barents Sea Ecoregion presents comprehensive information about organisms living in both the Russian and Norwegian part of the Barents Sea, including their abundance, distribution and conservation needs. It is the first time that this information is assembled in one report and priority areas for biodiversity conservation have been identified for the Barents Sea as a whole. The information has been gathered from a multitude of sources in Russia, Norway and elsewhere, and many people have assisted in its making. Besides the participants at a biodiversity workshop held in St. Petersburg in 2001 (see list p. 81, we would particularly like to thank the staff of the WWF Arctic Programme Coordination Office, the marine staff of WWF-Norway, Vassily Spiridonov at the WWF-Russian Programme Office in Moscow, Petra Wahl for valuable information about the Russian oil industry, Karl-Birger Strann for guidance to seabird literature, Bjørn Frantzen for sharing his knowledge about shipping activities and Salve Dahle and Akvaplan-Niva for housing the Barents Sea project office in the Polar Environment Centre in Tromsø. Special thanks must be given to the very helpful staff of the Norwegian Polar Institiute's Library. A most influential source of help and inspiration at the onset of this project was the work done by Margaret Williams and her collaborators in the Bering Sea ecoregion, while Kjell Are Moe and Pål Prestrud provided valuable comments to the manuscript. The report aims toward a broad group of users, managers, and students of biological and other resources in the Barents Sea. When citing literature in the text, we have therefore given preference to review articles and reports, before specialized scientific literature. Scientists may find this a bit backwards, but hopefully they will also find a satisfying number of references to original works and other scientific literature. Reference to unpublished material has been kept to a minimum, but in some cases this has been unavoidable. Russian readers may notice a bias toward western and Norwegian sources. Translating Russian texts has been one of the obstacles to a more IV – A biodiversity assessment of the Barents Sea Ecoregion PREFACE complete assessment of the biodiversity of the Barents Sea ecoregion, an obstacle we have hopefully been able to tackle to a reasonable extent through extensive consultations with Russian scientists. The alert reader will also notice a number of inconsistencies in the text with reference to geographical names. English names have been used as a general rule, but Norwegian and Russian names have also been spread - intentionally - in the text, tables and maps, as the reader will often find them in other literature about the region. The Biodiversity Assessment of the Barents Sea Ecoregion draws a picture of an area with extraordinary biodiversity values. Among its most spectacular features can be mentioned the world’s highest density of migratory seabirds, some of the richest fisheries in the world, diverse and rare communities of sea mammals and the largest deep water coral reef in the world. While these resources have supported human communities for centuries, growth and expansion of infrastructure, industrial activity and resource exploitation is increasingly threatening to undermine the very basis for biological diversity and production in the ecoregion. It is our hope that this assessment will contribute to increased awareness of the riches of the Barents Sea and to a long-term and a holistic management that balances human development with the needs to protect biodiversity. With wise management and pro-active planning it is still possible to ensure that the marine ecosystem of the Barents Sea continues to function with all its richness. Rasmus Hansson Samantha Smith Igor Chestin Secretary general, WWF-Norway Director, WWF Arctic Programme Secretary general, WWF-Russia A biodiversity assessment of the Barents Sea Ecoregion – V CONTENTS CONTENTS Preface...................................................................................................................................................................................... IV List of figures ........................................................................................................................................................................ VII Executive summary (English) ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Executive summary (Russian) .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Introduction: The Framework ................................................................................................................................................ 14 A sea of opportunities 14 The global 200 Ecoregions and the global conservation challenge 15 Biodiversity: Its meaning and measurement 18 The structure of