FISHERIES RESEARCH BOARD OF CANADA Translation Series No. 119 The cod and flounders of far-eastern seas by P.A. Moiseev Original title: Treska i kambaly dalnevostochnykh morei From: Izvestiya Tikhookeanskogo Nauchno-Issiedovaterskogo Instituta Rybnogo Khozyaistva i Okeanografii (TINRO) (Proceedings of the Pacific Scientific Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography), 40 : 1-287, 1953 Translated by the Translation Bureau Department of the Secretary of State of Canada Department of the Environment Fisheries and Marine Service BiologibarStatiOn,.Nanaimo, B. C. Biological Station, St-John's, Nfld. 1974 576 pages typescript September 7, 1 31796 - Russian (TVC) 769-18-14 Fisheries Research Board of Canada. MINISTRY OF LIGHT AND FOOD INDUSTRY OF THE USSR. NEWS OF THE TINRO. 1953 Volume XL. BY P. A. MOISEEV. THE COD AND FLOUNDERS OF FAR-EASTERN SEAS. Vladivostok. INTR.ODUCTION The Chukotsky and Bering Seas, the seas of • Okhotsk and of Japan, which was the Far Eastern Shores of the Soviet Union, cover immense areas. The multitude of animals inhabiting these seas is extremely varied. Of fish alone there are up to 800 species, among which some 200 are or can be regarded as exploitable species. Up to the present time the salmon and herring have. been of prevalent industrial importance in the Far East. The immense reserves of these fish, relative simplicity and high effectiveness of the fishing methods employed during the spawning period, simplicity of processing in- volved, excellence of quality of the finished product, all these factors appealed to industrial fishing, fish-proces- sing and fish-marketing organizations. As a result, the entire fishing industry of the Far East was until recen- tly, a passive industry --90% of the catch was obtained by means of stationary fishing implements or fishing cordage cast from the shore (such as seines and casting nets, etc.). Crab-fishing, whale-hunting and the hunting of other sea animals are exceptions. It is quite natural that where fishing methods are prevalently passive and depend for their success on the intensiveness of spawning by salmon and herring, a phenomenon rarely outlasting a few days, the success of the entire fishing season depends entirely on the catches made during a very short period of time. No out-of-season catches will compensate for low catches during the season and the entire fate of the yearly fishing plan ofteh directly depends on hydro- • meteorological conditions: storms, ice, distillation of the water in the littoral zone and other factors. Moreover, the reserves of Salmonidae are exhausted in certain fishing regions and rotation of abundant and scant generations of humpbacked salmon in all the regions produces enormous fluctuations in the annual catches of salmonidae; therefore, any considerable increase in the catch of fish in the Far East at the expense of Salmonidae must be considered as not very probable until effective methods of reproducing the salmonidae are developed and introduced into practice. The exhausted reserves of herring in the littoral zone and near the shores of Bakhalin do not provide a basis either for planning any substantial increase in catches of this fish. -3- At the same time, however, the reannexation of the Kuril Islands and Southern Sakhalin to the Soviet Union, rapid population of the shores of the Far Eastern seas by permanent residents, development and technical re-equipment of the fishing industry in the Far East and the continuously growing demand for fish products on the part of the population of the Soviet Union demand rapid rise in the catches of fish in the Far East and considerable increase in the assortment of fish products. One of the most substantial methods for increasing the catch of fish in the Far East (by several million hundredweight without intensifying the catch of Salmonidae) is the use of large accumulations of benthonic fish- cod, flounders, navaga, ruff and others, thé'reserves of which have remained practically intact up to the present. During the last few years cod and flounder fishing have been somewhat intensified (particularly during the Patriotic War), however, even the maximum summary catch of cod and flounder is not as great as it might be. Underlining the exceptionally economic importance of benthic fish inhabiting the Far Eastern seas and simultaneously noting that the scale on which the fishing of these species is conducted at present, is quite insufficient, we think it expedient to generalize the data available on the biology, distribution and industrial fishing of the most important benthic fish of the Far East which are most important from an industrial standpoint, namely, cod and flounder, and shall try to find what are the regular habits characteristic of these fish. -4- Furthermore, we wish to point out that the peculiar characteristics of the Far Eastern Seas have developed a number of speCific features of peculiar behaviour to cod and flounder in this area as compared to the behaviour of cod and flounder in other basins. We also wish to point out that prior to the establishment of the Soviet regime in the Far East, the biology of benthic fish was not studied at-all, and the scientists working in this region limited their research for the most part to research of ichthyofauna to systematic classification. Only after the Pacific Ocean Scientific Industrial Station 110 for the Far East was organized in 1925, a station subsequently re-organized to form the Pacific Ocean Scientific Research Institute of Fishing and Oceanography, did the study of deep-sea fish with a view to major industrial exploitation developed on a considerable scale. Over the course of the past year, we have collected considerahlé data material on the biology of cod and flounder and less extensive data on the biology of Alaska pollack navaga and other benthic fiàh, however, only an insignificant fraction of the results of these in- vestigations has appeared in print (see bibliography) to clarify certain aspects of the biology of this important food and industrial product. The present publication is a compilation of the results of the research carried out by the author and his assistants from TINRO (whose names are quoted in the text) on the industrial biology of cod and flounder in the Far Eastern seas. • -5- The problems, hitherto either insufficiently or not at all clarified in existing literature, are discussed most thoroughly. In a series of cases the author provides extensive factual data of original character, which cannot be found in the limited literature on the fish in the depths of the Far-eastern seas. The author admits that this work has substantial shortcomings, but believes that it is indispensable to generalize the data collected during the twenty years (1930-1950) of research. The composite data on the industrial biology of • benthic fish inhabiting those seas and the description of the main regularities of their biology will, we hope, facilitate the utilization of the considerable, but thus- far little-used reserves of fish in the waters washing the Pacific shores of the U.S.S.R. SHORT HISTORY OF INVESTIGATIONS. The first data on industrial fish (including the cod flounders and turbot which inhabit the Far Eastern seas were obtained by Russian seamen and explorers in the 18th century. Russian military and commercial seamen - the courageous navigators, attentive observers and thoughtful explorers - left detailed diaries, notes and descrip- tions of everything they saw while navigating the North Pacific Ocean, a region previously quite unknown to Europeans. • -6- Spanberg visited the east coast of Japan in 1739, reported he saw cod and other fish which "... we have not seen either in Europe or Asia". While navigating the packet-boat "St. Peter" with Vitus Bering in 1744, Steller, outstanding scientist, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, visited a number of islands near the shores of Alaska and descrided in detail the cod and turbot fishing off the shores of Kodiak Island (Steller, 1793). Even American explorers (Kobb, 1927) were compelled to admit that "the first data on the presence of fish (in Alaska waters-p.m.) were provided • by a Russian navigator in 1765, who reported that cod, perch, herring and smelt were found around the Lysiy Islands". Tikhmenov (1861) records how Russian inhabitants of Alaska coast reported: "cod and turbot were available , during the summer in sufficient number, as were herring and navaga, all caught during their respective seasons". Considerably later, in 1857, American commercial seamen, by accident, made it possible to effectively conduct commercial cod fishing in Tatorskiy strait and near the shores of Kamchatka. It is worth while noting that American cod fishing in the Pacific Ocean started and initially developed near the Russian shores. Shelekhov, one of the organizers of the Russian-American company, described the hook cordage used in cod and turbot fishing by the population of Aleutian islands in detail. Steban Krasheninnjkov, the brilliant explorer of Kamchatka (1775), listed cod and turbot among many other industrial fish species described in his outstanding work "Description of Kamchatka Land". -7- I. Veniaminov, who lived in Alaska for a long period of time (1840) reported in detail on the cod fishing in that area, made observations on the migration and behaviour of cod and pointed out cases of its complete annihilation and disappearance from the fishing grounds during certain years. We could give several other similar examples, but the above suffice to show that over 200 years ago, during the period of early exploration across the Northern Pacific Ocean Russian seamen and explorers already had data on the huge potential resources of cod, turbot, flounder • and other fish species along the Northwestern and North- eastern coast of the Pacific Ocean. During the second half of the XVIII century, the period when exploration and settlement of the discovered territories of the Far East began, a number of outstanding scientists visited the shores of the Pacific Ocean.