THE BARENTS SEA 159 



Fish of commercial importance. Not more than 20 species could be included 

 in a list of commercial fish in the Barents Sea, and among them only ten are 

 of essential importance to the trawling industry. In this industry cod {Gadus 

 callarias), haddock {Gadus aeglefinus) and bass {Sebastes narinus) are the most 

 prominent. 



The commercial importance of these three groups of fish changes from year 

 to year, as is evident from Table 69. 



Table 69. Percentage significance of individual races offish in the catch of Barents Sea 



trawlers 



Blue sea catfish and catfish {Anarrhichas minor and A. lupus), long rough 

 dab {Drepanopsetta platessoides), sea dab {Pleuronectes platessa), halibut 

 (Hippoglossus hippoglossus), coalfish {Gadus virens) and shark {Somniosus 

 microcephalus), are of a secondary commercial importance in the industry. 



In the last few years herring {Clupea harengus harengus) has acquired great 

 importance in the Barents Sea fish industry. 



It is remarkable that all the main commercial fish — cod, haddock, bass, 

 coalfish and herring — occur in the Barents Sea at the extreme limit of their 

 distribution while they breed mainly outside the Barents Sea in the coastal 

 waters of Norway, where even in the deep floor layers the temperature does 

 not fall below 5° to 6°. The Barents Sea, with its spawning-feeding migra- 

 tions, is basically a feeding place for all these fish; they breed here only 

 partially (mainly in the coastal waters) (Fig. 62). 



The trawling yield is steadily increasing from year to year. In 1921 it was 

 39 thousand centners (1 centner=100 kg), in 1930—350 thousand, in 1934 — 

 772 thousand, in 1936—1-75 million, in 1950—2-3 million, and in 1956— 

 5-5 million centners. 



The catch of herring {Clupea harengus harengus) is still subject to great 

 fluctuations, but in some years it reaches a million centners. In 1956 the 

 herring catch was only 100,000 centners. 



In 1955 the catch of the trawling fleets of the u.s.s.r., Britain and the 

 German Federal Republic was 7-5 million centners in the south of the Barents 

 Sea, in the Bear Island-Spitsbergen region (mainly the catch of Britain and 

 the German Federal Republic) it was 1-6 million centners, while off the north- 

 western coast of Norway it was 1-2 million centners. Furthermore the coastal 

 catch of Norway and the u.s.s.r. (from Lofoten to the eastern Murman 

 coast) in 1955 was 2-1 million centners, and the total for the Barents Sea 

 was approximately 10 million centners. 



