THE BARENTS SEA 



165 



of the stomach differ with the seasons : in the summer and autumn they are 

 from 8 a.m. to noon, in the spring from noon to 4 p.m., in winter from 4 to 

 8 p.m. The greatest repletion of the stomach seems to be linked with definite 

 tidal phases (half flood and half ebb). Since there is no coincidence between 

 the time of day and the tidal phase accurate dependence of the feeding rhythm 

 on these two factors is destroyed. 



The feeding of haddock. In contrast to cod, haddock feeds mainly on benthos 

 (Fig. 67). Two hundred various forms of benthos have been found in haddock 



Fig. 66. Chart of haddock migration in Barents Sea. 1 Areas 

 of pre-spawning migrations of mature haddock; 2 Winter 

 shoaling areas of haddock ; 3 Areas of summer and autumn 

 shoaling; 4 Migration of mature haddock; 5 Migration of 

 immature haddock (Maslov, 1944). 



intestines, with a preponderance of brittle stars, bivalves, polychaetes and si- 

 punculids. Ordinarily a large amount of the material of the sea bottom is 

 found in the haddock's stomach. Off the Murman coast, in spring and at the 

 beginning of summer, haddock feeds intensively on caplin, which approaches 

 the shores for spawning, and on its spawn (Fig. 66). 



The importance of the separate components of the haddock's food as a 

 percentage of the total repletion index is shown in Table 72 (according to 

 V. Zatzepin, 1939 and A. Dekhtereva, 1931.) 



V. Zatzepin drew an interesting comparison for the western Murman be- 

 tween the quantity of food consumed by haddock and the amount of benthos. 

 This gives a definite estimate of the selective capacity of fish for its food 

 Table 73). 



Haddock prefers echinoderms (brittle stars and little sea-urchins) and 



