VeciiivEs FISHERIES RESEARCH BOARD OF CANADA Translation Series No. 1665 The ringed seal of western seas of the Soviet Arctic (The morphological characteristic, biology and hunting production) By K. K. •Chapskii Original title: Nerpa zapadnykh morei Sovetskoi arktiki (Morfologicheskaya kharakteristika, biologiya, promysklennoe syr'e) From: Trudy Arkticheskogo nauchno-issledovatel'skogo instituta glavnovo upravleniya severnogo morskogo puti pri snk SSSR (Proceedings of the Arctic Scientific Research Institute, Chief Administration of the Northern Sea Route), 145:_— 1-72, 1940 Translated by the Translation Bureau(NDK) Foreign Languages Division Department of the Secretary of State of Canada Fisheries Research Board of Canada Arctic Biological Station Ste. Anne de Bellevue, P. Q. 1971 147 pages typescript pc Me DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE „ SECRÉTARIAT D'ÉTAT TRANSLATION BUREAU BUREAU DES TRADUCTIONS FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION DES LANGUES ar DIVISION CANADA ÉTRANGÈRES TRANSLATED FROM — TRADUCTION DE INTO — EN Russian • English AUTHOR — AUTEUR K.K. Chapsky TITLE IN ENGLISH — TITRE ANGLAIS The Ringed Seal of the Western Seas of the Soviet Arctic Title in foreign language (transliterate foreign characters) Nerpa zapadnvkh morei sovetskoi arktiki R5URENCE IN FOREIGN ANGUAG, E (NAME OF BOOK OR PUBLICATION) IN FULL. TRANSLITERATE FOREIGN CHAttACTERS. • REFERENCE EN LANGUE ETRANGERE (NOM DU LIVRE OU PUBLICATION), AU COMPLET. TRANSCRIRE EN CARACTERES PHONETIQUES. TrudY àrkticheskogo nauchno-iàsledovatel'skogo instituta Glavnogo upimvleniya severhogo morskogo put! pri SNK SSSR ip ERENCE IN ENGLISH — RÉFÉRENÇE EN ANGLAIS Proceedings of the Arctic -ScientificResearch Institute • Chief Administration of the'Northern Sea Route . PUBLISH ER — ÉDITEUR PAGE NUMBERS IN ORIGINAL DATE OF PUBLICATION NUMÉROS DES PAGES DANS Izd. Glavsevmorputi DATE DE PUBLICATION L'ORIGINAL • YEAR MSUENO. 73 VOLUME ANNÉE NUMÉRO PLACE OF PUBLICATION NUMBER OF TYPEDPAGES LIEU DE PUBLICATION NOMBRE DE PAG,ES • Leningrad. Moscow DACTYLOGRAPHIEES 1940 145 147 REQUESTING DEPARTMENT Fisheries & Forestry TRANSLATION BUREAU NO. 1935 MIN ISTÉRE-CLIENT NOTRE DOSSIER NO BRANCH OR DIVISION Fisheries Research Board TRANSLATOR (INITIALS) N.D.K. DIRECTION OU DIVISION TRADUCTEUR (INITIALES) T.G. Smith • P.ERSON EQUESTING DATE CpMPLETEO 1 6 1911 DEMANDE PAR Fisheries Research Board ACHEVE LE rfEB Arctic.Biological Station . YOUR NUMBER St; Anne de Bellevue VOTRE DOSSIER N° 769-18 14 1%014 • r-: rVI•Ste' ' DATE OF REQUEST ' July 10 1970 eon 'et‘ DATE DE L A DEMANDE U'è\Ç" '. Orit'l VIC4 - tlik;C°-'j Se'\Ge e ..te, Ikr!toï," •t:,1 eiOn • FLD 69A • 303.200- 104e (REv. 2/88? ' )665- DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE SECRÉTARIAT D'ÉTAT TRANSLATION BUREAU BUREAU DES TRADUCTIONS FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION DIVISION DES LANGUES ÉTRANGÈRES CANADA CLIENT'S NO. DEPARTMENT DIVISION/BRANCH CITY N° DU CLIENT MINISTERE DIVISION/DIRECTION VILLE Fisheries & Forestry Fisheries Research Board Ottawa BUREAU NO. LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR (INITIALS) DATE No DU BUREAU LANGUE TRADUCTEUR (INITIALES) 0., um 1935 Russian N.D.K. .r1 td* . FEB 1 ° TRANSACTIONS OF THE ARCTIC INSTITUTE OF THE ' CHIEF ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN SEA ROUTE -VOLUME 145 K.K. CHAPSKY THE RINGED SEAL OF THE WESTERN SEAS OF THE SOVIET ARCTIC The morphological characteristic, biology and commercial raw material -el Edited by ■•-•••' ., - ..• • ce \1\se . <:‘ . ....6ak‘- Prof. N.A. SMIRNOV ..e.„9 .,. •,,,:to'r*,‘,'ee. ,:- 0 ,o .,‘0 C'çe\ ,■0'' e» çe v‘ ke LENINGRAD . 1940 • MOSCOW .SOS-200-10 .-31 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Morphological Nature 1. Size of Animal 2. Colour of the Hair Cover 3. Age Features 4. Review of Sub-Species Phoca hispida pygmaea Reproduction - 1. Pupping 2. Snow Dens of Ringed Seal 3. The Early Period in the Life of a Pup 4. The Mating Period and the Length of Pregnancy IV. Change in the Hair Cover • -1. Length of Retention of the Embryonic Hair Cover 2 , The Molting of Mature and Young Ringed Seal (Having Changed the Embryonic Hair Cover) V. Diet P • VI. Commercial Raw Material 1. Total Weight of Ringed Seal 2. Fat Yield and Condition. 3. Use of the Hide and Subcutaneous Fat 4. Other Produce (Meat Carcass - "Raushka") VII. Practical Conclusions VIII. Bibliography , INTRODUCTION The ringed seal (Phoca hispida Schreb.) is the most widespread and, possibly, most characteristic animal of the Arctic seas in the Soviet Union. In economic importance it is preceded by the Greenland seal in the west and by the walrus in the east. Its reserves up to the present time remain almost untouched for ,a large part of the marine area of the Soviet Arctic. In the Barents and Kara seas the most intensive hunting is developed essentially along the western shore of Novaya Zemlya. In the other regions there is sporadic hunting only where there is coastal settlement. The large quantity of ringed seal and the great need for its products,which ib felt both in local areas and in the entire economy,opehs up wide possibilities for future develop- ment in the hunting of this animal. Information on the ringed seal as an object of hunting has hitherto remained on a very, low level, being based on data which have been published more than thirty years ago. The last ten years have been marked, as we know, by great progress in the many-sided study of the Soviet Arctic and its exploitation. As a result of the composite hunting and biological studies whichhnve been conducted during the last five years by numerous Soviet research workers significant though incomplete data has been accumulated on ringed seal as well. The present report sums up what is known at the present time about the biology and morphology of the northern ringed seal and about the quantitative and, in part, the qualitative indices of the obtained commercial raw material. Since the work is composite in nature, the,.author included all .of the new data which were accessible to him which had been . collected by the scientific personnel of different expeditions and winterings, particularly, by V. Antipin, M. Vladimirskaya, V. Vagin, G. Galkin, G. Gorbunov, A. Dubroyskii, N. Demme-Ryabtseya, K. Kovalev, A. Lepin, L. Leonbv, N. Mikhel, N. Provorov, G.Rutilevskii. A. Tyulin, A. Chechulin, I. YakimoVich et. al, and by hunters'and : other workers in the Arctic. IL THE MORPHOLOGIC NATURE 1. Size of Animal Since the size of the body is a changing value, it should not be recorded except in close connection with age, particularly in the periôd of intensive growth of the orgahism- After many - considerations the following age categories were adopted: 1) the offspring at birth; 2) half-year-olds; 3) year-olds; 4) older offspring not sexually mature; 5) mature Males and females. The establishment of these age groups was preceded by very laborious and long work on developing age criteria and on the rationale of the selected age categories. The incompleteness of the data, the broad limits of uncertainty concerning individual • features, the disappointing gaps in the collections - all of this complicated the work to a considerable degree and could not but - reflect on the final calculations which are cited in Table 1. Table 1. ,a.nutta: Te.Ta KonbqaToil nepnbt no ap,apacTuo-noaonum rpynnati • •.- /1.amia Tea OT KOlina 3ooaomecxan3ooaollgemtan Anima 3oo1ornitcxan Aaiun 1 pbtaajo Konna k'nocTa Teaa:Teaa: OT icomta pbmapbuta Term, Bann« nmecTe 1 Hatimenonannn , xonua xnocra no no ropitaonTaan (Lcv) " xB°cn im C. 3a11IIHNIII agcramit .• crinnell.c)crime (Lc) Boap,acTno- (e cm) .(11(a cm)CM.) (Lp) noaotebi' rpyrnt min. med. max. min. med. max. min. med. ,max. • IlpnrutoR twit poxueinnt . 55,0 80,0 Ilepaoromat B BoapacTé 0E0110 noayrona . , 70,0 79,5(20) 95,0 • 74,0 90,9(24) 103,0 83, 103,0(15) Font:elm/lbw . • 73,0 91,6(93) 105,01, 81,0 97,9(10) 110,0 90,0 113,9(58) Henononoape- .abte cTapmero BoapacTa • •; 97,0' 105,3(47) 116,0 ,1 102,5 112,6(57) 119,0 129,1(40) 140,0. Bapocinge cam- 1 KII 97,0 1 ig,106) 139,0i 114,0 123,0(21i 148,0 134,0 145,6(15) 166,0 • f. Sapocnble cam- 1 Ilbt . 106,0 123,1(39) 140,0 113,0 128,0(57) 153,0 129,0 146,4(53) 173,0 I p id M e rt a it e: Flpit yKa3ai nu cpeieux nmppbt, aaiummemnge B cKo6tat Bo acex captanx 060311ainuor i:o.rumecTno n3mepennii. Key to Table 1: I. Body length of the ringed seal according to age and sex uoups. 1. Age and sex group a) Offspring at birth • h) Offsprings in the first year of life 9 approximately half-year-olds c) Year-olds • d) Older offspring not sexually mature - e) Maturè females f) Mature males 2. Body length, from the end of the snout to the tip of the tail along the horizontal (Lcv) (in cm) • 3. Zoological body length: from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail along the back (Lc) (in cm) 4. Zoological body length taken together with the posterior flippers (Lp) 5. Note: The figures in brackets which are next to the average values indicate the number of measurements. The method of measurement and the designation of individual measurements were borrowed from Professor N.A. Smirnov. The zoological length (Lc) is adopted as the base (from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail); it is determined by placing a tape.measuremarked in centimeters on the dorsal surface of the body. In addition, the total length (Lp) (the zoological length which is extended to the tip of the flippers) and a projection of the zoological length on a horizontal plain (Lcv) are used. All three methods of expressing the body length are represented in Table 1. In exàmining the Table, the following should be borne in mind.