327 HERRING OF THE NORTH EUROPEAN BASIN AND ADJACENT SEAS Translations from the Russian Laboratory*. < Marine Biclogical LMAR2T1S60 I V.'OODS HOLE; MASS. SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC REPORT- FISHERIES Na 327 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE United States Department of the Interior, Fred A. Seaton, Secretary Fish and Wildlife Service, Arnie J. Suomela, Director SEL'DI SEVERO-EVROPEYSKOGO BASSEYNA I SMEZH^fYKH MOREY THE HERRING OF THE NORTH EUROPEAN BASIN AND ADJACENT SEAS Translations from the Russian Polyarnyy nauchno-issledovatel'skiy institut mor- skogo rybnogo khozyaystva i okeanografii , Murmansk, . 1956, Vypusk 9. Edited by Leslie W. Scattergood Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory Boothbay Harbor, Maine United States Fish and Wildlife Service Special Scientific Report — Fisheries No. 327 Washington, D. C. November 1959 CONTENTS Page Editor's Preface to Translations. 1 Preface 3 The Fundamental Stage of the Life-cycle of Atlantic -Scandinavian Herring - by Yu. Yu. Marti 5 Chart of Constant Currents in the Norwegian and Greenland Seas - by A. P. Alekseev and B. V. Istoshin 69 Plankton as an Indicator of Waters of Different Origins - by V. D. Abramova ... 77 Seasonal Changes in Plankton and Feeding Migrations of Herring - by E. A. Pavshtiks 104 Data on the Food of the Atlantic Herring - by V. A. Rudakova. 140 Investigation into the Life-cycle of Summer -spawning Herring of Iceland - by K. A. Liamin. 166 The Ovogenesis and Ecology of the Sexual Cycle of the Murmansk Herring (Clupea Harengus Harengus L.) - by V. M. Naumov 203 Experimental Tagging of Herring in Kandalaksha Bay in 1953-1954 - by A. P. Vilson 262 The Biological Foundations of the Fishery of the White Sea Herring - by B. M. Tambovtsev 272 . EDITOR'S PREFACE TO TRANSLATIONS Russian herring research has been greatly expanded since World War II and in the past decade a number of biological reports on Clupea harengus have been published. One of Russia's most comprehensive accounts of the biology of this species has been published as Trudy No. 9 of PINRO (Polyarnyy Nauchno-issledovatel'skiy Institut Morskogo Rybnogo Khozyaystva i Okeano- grafii). Four of the English-speaking fishery laboratories have collaborated in translating Trudy No. 9. The Lowestoft laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food provided translations for articles 2, 3, and 5. The Aberdeen laboratory of the Scottish Home Department was responsible for articles 6 and 7. The St. Andrews, New Brunswick laboratory of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada had translated articles 1, 4, and 8. The U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries laboratory at Boothbay Harbor, Maine provided a translation of article 9. Librarians Eileen C. Howard of Lowestoft, H. McCall of Aberdeen, and Lewis R. Day of St . Andrews were active collaborators with the general editor Leslie W . Scattergood of Boothbay Harbor In the Literature In all instances, literature citations have been abbreviated. Following is a list of some Russian abbreviations: ANII Arkticheskiy Nauchno-issledovatel'skiy Institut (Arctic Scientific Research Institute). AN SSSR Akademiya Nauk, SSSR (Academy of Science of the U.S.S.R.). AzcherNIRO Azovo-Chernomorskiy Nauchnyy Institut Rybnogo Khozyaystva (Azov-Black Sea Fisheries). DAN Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR (Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.). Gidrometizdat Gidrometeorologicheskoye Izdatel'stvo (Hydrometeorology Publishing House). GIOA Gosudarstvennyy Institut Opjrtnoy Agronomii (State Institute of Experimental Agriculture). GQIN Gosudarstvennyy Okeanograficheskly Institut (State Oceanographic Institute) GUSMP Glavnoye Upravleniye Severnogo Morskogo Puti (Main Administration of the Northern Sea Route) Izd. Izdaniye (edition); izdatel' (publisher); Izdatel'stvo (publishing house). Kn. Kniga (book). LGU Leningradskly Gosudarstvennyy Unlversitet (Leningrad State University) . Medgiz Gozudarstvennoye Izdatel'stvo Meditsinskoy Literatury (State Publishing House of Medical Literature). MGU Moskovskiy Gosudarstveimyy Universitet (Moscow State University). MOIP Moskovskoye Obshchestvo Ispytateley Prirody (Moscow Society of Naturalists). Mosrybvtuz Moskovskiy Tekhnicheskiy Institut Rybnoy Promyshlennosti i Khozyaystva (Moscow Technical Institute of the Fish Industry and Fisheries). MRP Ministerstvo Rybnoy Promyshlennosti (Ministry of the Fish Industry). PINRO Polyarnyy Nauchno-issledovatel'skiy Institut Morskogo Rybnogo Khozyaystva i Okeanografii (Polar Scientific Research Institute of Sea Fisheries and Oceanography) Pishchepromizdat Sosudarstvennoye Nauchno-tekhnicheskoye Izdatel'stvo Ministerstva Promyshlennosti Prodovol'stvennykh Tovarov (State Scientific and Technical Publishing House of the Ministry of the Food Products Industry) t^ tom (volume). TINRO Tikhookeanskiy Institut Rybnogo Khozyaystva (Pacific Ocean Fisheries Institute). VNIRO Vsesoyuznyy Nauchnyy Institut Morskogo Rybnogo Khozyaystva i Okeanografii (All -Union Scientific Institute of Maritime Fisheries and Oceanography). VNlORKh Vsesoyuznyy Nauchno-issledovatel'skiy Institut Ozernogo i Rechnogo Rybnogo Khozyaystva (All -Union Scientific Research Institute of the Fish Industry of Lakes and Rivers) vyp. vypusk (issue, number, publication). ZRIS Za Rybnuyu Industriyu Severa (For the Fishing Industry of the North). The deficiencies in the literature citations in the translated articles are inherent in the original papers. We have not attempted to correct or complete them. .. THE HERRING OF THE NORTH EUROPEAN BASIN AND ADJACENT SEAS PREFACE In order to realize the decree of the Party and the Government concerning the development of the Soviet fisheries, the Polar Institute in 1937 began a large scale investigation of the biology of the Barents Sea herrings. The principal results of these investigations are published in Volumes IV, VI and VII of the Trudy PINRO. It was found that the Atlantic -Scandinavian herring which originate from the northernmost spawning places, near the Lofoten Islands, spend the first year of their lives in the Barents Sea. There they grow and live until the onset of maturity. The immature herring are in large schools which from the year 1938 onwards were exploited by drifters. It was found that the tribe of immature Atlantic -Scandinavian herring in the Barents Sea was comjxjsed of a small number of age groups. Until the third year of age, the herring is of little commercial importance, and at an age of 4-5 years the greater part leaves the Barents Sea. Thus only three, sometimes four, age groups may be the object of fishery along the Murman coast With a limited number of age groups, great fluctuations in the strength of the year classes will be largely reflected in the size of the stock and accordingly will also affect the fishery. This was the practical conclusion of the PINRO investigations on the natural basis for the relative size of the herring fishery in the Barents Sea. During the following period, the experience of the fishery confirmed this hypothesis. By the presence of only one rich year class in the stock, the catch was very good; but when all the year classes were poor, the output of the fishery was quite different This main conclusion determined the direction of the following investigations of the Polar Institute It was necessary to find the habitat of the mature herring which had grown up in the Barents Sea and find out if these fish could be exploited in any way. The long life of the Atlantic- Scandinavian herring gives rise to the assumption that the mature part of the stock might be of great practical importance for the Soviet fishery. The first investigations in this direction were carried out in 1939. Large schools of mature herring were discovered west of the Spitzbergen Archipelago. After the conclusion of the Second World War, the Polar Institute resumed the study of the migrations of the mature herring in the area of the Spitzbergen current . A small experimental fishery expedition in 1947 may be taken as the beginning of the development of the Soviet herring fishery outside the borders of tlie Barents Sea. During the following period, Soviet seamen. In close collaboration with the scientific workers of the Polar Institute, extended the area of the fishery and begun to catch herring through- out the year, exploiting the schools of the herring on their way to the feeding or spawning areas. During this period, the main attention of the Soviet scientists was directed to the migra- tions of the mature Atlantic-Scandinavian herring which had contributed to the great fishery of the USSR in the North EurojDean basin. During these years, a large amount of material was also collected on the distribution of the immature herring. New spawning areas were disclosed by the Soviet investigators of the Atlantic -Scandinavian races of herring on the edge of the continental shelf of the North Sea and around the Faroes. In order to study the migrations of the Atlantic -Scandinavian herring, it was necessary to organize extensive hydrographic investigations. Such investigations were carried out by the Institute during the following years, adding essential corrections to the scheme of the currents of the Norwegian Sea, presented at the beginning of this century by Nansen and Helland-Hansen. The investigations threw light upon the biology of the Atlantic -Scandinavian herring, the areas and conditions of their reproduction, the drift of the larvae and young, the migrations of the mature individuals, the structure of the spawning population, and the