Fish investigations in the Barents Sea winter 2017

Abstract

Annual catch quotas and other regulations of the Barents Sea fisheries are set through negotiations between Norway and Russia. Assessment of the state of the stocks and quota advices are given by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Their work is based on survey results and international landings statistics. The results from the demersal fish winter surveys in the Barents Sea are an important source of information for the annual stock assessment.<p>

<p>The development of the survey started in the early 1970s and focused on acoustic measurements of cod and haddock. Since 1981 it has been designed to produce both acoustic and swept area estimates of fish abundance. Some development has taken place since then, both in area coverage and in methodology. The development is described in detail by Jakobsen et al. (1997), Johannesen et al. (2009) and Appendix 2. At present the survey provides the main data input for several projects at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen:<p>

<ul> <li>monitoring abundance of the Barents Sea demersal fish stocks</li> <li>mapping fish distribution in relation to climate and prey abundance</li> <li>monitoring food consumption and growth</li> <li>estimating predation mortality caused by cod</li>

</ul><p>

<p>This report presents the main results from the surveys in January-March 2017. The surveys were performed with the Norwegian research vessels “Helmer Hanssen” and “G.O. Sars”. Annual survey reports since 1981 are listed in Appendix 1, and names of scientific participants are given in Appendix 3.