01 C2 A Review of Russian Literature t.6lN COPYON V F !ital hy Ole A, Mathisen and kenneth O. C i@le ~B-96 OO1 C2 LGAMCQi'Y ONLY Ecologyof the BeringSea A Review of Russian Literature Edited by Ole A. Mathisen and KennethO. Coyle AlaskaSea Grant ReportNo. 96-01 AlaskaSea Grant College Program University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-5040 Fax {907! 474-6285 E-mail l- YVU BSO~aurora, alaska.edu Elmer E. RasmusonLibrary Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ecologyofthe Bering Sea: a reviewofRussian literature / Ole A, Matbisen and KennethO. Coyle,editors, AK-SG; 96-01! 1,Marine ecology Bering Sea. 2. Marinemammals Bering Sea Ecology. 3.Fishes Bering Sea Ecology,I. Mathisen, Ole Alfred, 1919- II, Coyle,Kenneth 0, IIl. Alaska Sea Grant CollegeProgram. IV. Series: Alaska sea grant report; 96-01, QH95.26.E27 1996 ISBN 1-56612-037-3 Citationfor this volume is: O,A, Mathisen snd Kenneth O. Coyle Editors!. 1996. Ecologyof the BeringSea; A Reviewof RussianLiterature. Alaska Sea Grant CollegeProgram Report No. 96-01, University of Alaska Fairbanks. ACKNOWLEDC MENTS Thisbook is the result ofwork sponsored by the U.S.Department of State,award no.S-OPRAQ-93-AH-016. Production work on the publication was sponsored by theUniversity ofAlaska Sea Grant College Program, which is cooperativelysup- ported.by the U,S.Department of Commerce, NOAA Offjce of SeaGrant, grant no.NA46RG-0104, project A/75-01; and by the Universityof Alaskawith state funds.Cover designis by SusanGibson. TheUniversity ofAlaska is anafhrmative action/equal opportunity eznployer and education.al institution, SeaGrant is a uniquepartnership with public and private sectors combining research,education, and technologytransfer for publicservice. This national networkof universitiesmeets changing environmental and economicneeds of peoplein our coastal, ocean,and Great Lakes regions. Contents Preface OceanographicDescription of the BeringSea V.K. Pavlov awardP. V. Pavlov. Zooplanktonof the BeringSea: A Reviewof Russian-Language Literature K.O. Coy/e, VG. Chavtut;and A.l, Pinchuk 97 SpeciesComposition and Distributionof Squidsin the WesternBering Sea Ve.l.Sobolevsky. Long-TermFluctuations in the Ichthyofaunaof the WesternBering Sea N.l. Naumenko 143 Distributionand TrophicRelationships of Abundant MesopelagicFishes of the BeringSea Yr.k Sobolevsky,T.Ci. Sokolovskaya, A.A. Balanov,and 1.A.Senchenko .... 159 StockDynamics of WesternBering Sea Herring N.I. Naumenko Dynamicsand Abundanceof WesternBering Sea Walleye Pollock P.A.Balykin ., 7 Paci6cCod Cadusmacrocephalus! of the WesternBering Sea Andrei 'V. Vinnikov. Distributionand BiologicalIndices of YellowfinSole P/euronectesasper! in the SouthwesternBering Sea .S.V. Kupriyanov . 203 Biologyof Smelt Osmeridae!in the Korf-KaraginCoastal Area of the SouthwesternBering Sea V.l. Karper>koar>d Plvt. Vasileft . Distribution,Biological Condition, and Abundance of Capelin Maflohrsvillosus socialis! in the BeringSea f.A. h'aumenko. 237 Developmentand Distribution of theYoung of Northern Smoothtonguegeurogjossus schrnidti! in the Northwest PacificOcean arul Western Bering Sea Ye,l.Soholevsky and T C Sokolovskaya. 257 Distribution,Abundance, and Trophic Relationships of BeringSea Cetaceans Ve.l. Sobolevskv and OJ'eA. Mathisen. 265 Statusof the Northern Fur Seal Ca/lorhinusursinus! Populationof theCommander Islands A, I. Bol toe v . 277 Distributionand Seasonal Feeding Behavior of SpottedSeals Pbocalargha! in the BeringSea Ye.l,Soho/evsky. 289 HistoricalTrends in Abundanceof Steller Sea Lions Eurnetopiasjubatus!in the Northwest Pacific Ocean A.l, Boftnev and O,A. Mathisen 297 Preface Thepurpose of this bookis to makeavailable results of Russianstudies of the BeringSea ecosystem to North Americanscientists not conversantin the Rus- sianlanguage. The book is the resultof a contractsigned in July 1993between the U.S.Department of Stateand the Schoolof Fisheriesand OceanSciences, Universityof AlaskaFairbanks. Dr. O,A. Mathisen became the principal investi- gator of this Joint U.S. RussiaBering SeaStudies project, RESEARCHNEEDED FOR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Utilization and managementof marine resourcesin the Bering Sealargely have beenon a species-by-speciesbasii;.As a result,less attention has been paid to the non-commercialgroups of organismseven though the largest biomass is foundin groupssuch as mesopelagicfishes, A newtrend is to lookat the ecosystema.s an entity with broadinteractions between the trophiclevels. As our knowledgeof migrationsby fish, marinemammals, and birdsis expanding,it becomesvery clear that the eastern and western parts of the Bering Seacannot be treated as separateunits. They are linked acrossnational boundaries by oceancurrents and trophic connections. For the Bering Sea there is a reasonablehope of developingan ecosystem approachto management,provided there is a unifiedresearch approach. This wouldprimarily be between institutions in the RussianFar Eastand the United States,as the principalusers of the resourcesof the BeringSea, in additionto research institutions in Japan, Korea, and China. HISTORY OF RUSSIAN RESEARCH Despiteongoing economic problems, Russian marine institutions have maintained collectionsof oceanographicdata and field samplingfrom the Bering Seaecosys- tern. These institutions include TINRO, KarnchatNIRO, SakhTIVRO, the Insti- tute of Marine Biology,the Acadcrnyof Sciencesof the Far East, the Institute of FyydrbbiOIOg,the Far EasternState University, and smallerunits, Studiesbe- ganeven before World War II andincreased rapidly as the Russianfishing fleets expanded into the Bering Sea. Some scientific results have been published in journals of TINRO and the Academyof Sciences,Proceedings of the many meetingsand workshopsheld in the Far East have beenproduced in such low numbers,from 200 to 400 copies, that supplieswere immediately exhausted. In addition,the publishedarticles arebrief andincomplete, Prepared manuscripts remain unpublished because of a several-year lag in the publication schedule. COMPILATION OF THIS BOOK The writing of this bookwas accomplished by makingcont, acts with Russian ex- pertsin selectedresearch fields. Faculty members of the UAF Schoolof Fisheries and Ocean Sciences made short visits to institutions in Russia, and Russian sci- entistswere invited for lengthy visits to UAF in Juneauand Fairbanks.While mostresulting papers summarize contemporary Russian knowledge in the se- lectedfields, some papers are entirely new and original, For someauthors who had nearly coinpleted manuscriptson hand, this book has provideda welcome publishingopportunity. While ideally all organismsin the ecosystemwould be treated,grou ps including birds and salmon are notincluded in this book. For a review ofRussian salmon research see V.I, Radchenkoand A.I, Chigirinsky,1995, Pacific salmonin the Bering Sea, ¹rth PacifiicAnadromous Fish Commission Doc. 122, 80 pp.! The task of translating the papersinto English wasaccomplished by Univer- sityof Alaska School of Fisheriesand Ocean Sciences research associate Kenneth Coyle,University of AlaskaFairbanks student, Alexey Isakov, and University of Alaska Southeast student Lisa Valetsky. The translations, tables, and figures were corrected,redrawn, and retypedby professionaleditorial staff of the Alaska Sea Grant College Program Sue Keller and Carol Kaynor!,Point Stephens Press Kitty Mecklenburgand TonyMecklenburg!, Catherine Franklin Desktop Pub- l.ishing,and Heid.i Olson. In the referencesections, editors abbreviated journal titles accordingto Serial Sourcesfor he BIOSIS PrevieivsDatabase. Expertswho reviewed the papersin this volumeinclude Karl Banse,Jeff Breiwick,Robert Elan,er, Lew Haldorson,Dick Merrick,Keith Pahlke,Brian Paust, AndreiProshutinsky, Terrance Quinn II, Kathy Rowell,William Smoker, Grant Thompson,Thomas Wilderbuer,and Ann York. In the contributionby Coyle et al, all reviewercomments were addressed;in other papersreviewer comments were addressedby the editorswhere possible.The mandateof the U.S. Depart- ment of State making availableEnglish translations of Russianresearch on the BeringSea ecosystem is fulfilledin this volume,The mandate, coupled with the difficulty ofcommunicating with Russian authors in a reasonabletime, precludes standard peer review. Also, it shouldbe notedthat. some of the paperswere writ- ten without accessto new North American literature. It is hopedthat tbe contributionsin this bookwill be usefulas background material in planning future joint studies. Ecologyof the Bering Sea.A Revteivot RussianLiterature OceanographicDescription of the BeringSea V.K. Pavlov and P.V. Pavlov Arcti c and Antarctic Research Institute St. Petersburg, Russia CONTENTS 1 G EOGRAPMIC-MORPMOLOC ICAL Geographic-MorphologicalDescription DESCRIPTION The Bering Sea is one of the bordering seas of the 2. HistoricalBackground Pacific Ocean. Its shape is like a sector-circle; the 3. ClimaticFeatures: Meteorological top is pointed north and the bottom parallels the Regime latitude lines. The Bering Sea washes the coast of' North America in the east arid northeast and the Waves coast of Asia in the west and northwest. The Aleu- tian-Commander archipelago bordersthe sea to the S. Water Cir culation south, separating it froin the Pacific Ocean. 6. Circulationand Water Exchangein the The Bering Sea is connected with the Chukchi Straits Sea and Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait, which separates the Chukchi Peninsula from the 7. Freshwater from Rivers Seward Peninsu]a. Numerous straits through the 8. SurfaceHeight Aleutian-Corninander archipelago