THE KARA SEA 



253 



becomes even more evident when benthos is estimated from the point of 

 view of its nutrient significance. 



A very great predominance of echinoderms and above-mentioned excessive 

 size bring the amounts of edible benthos within the zone of brown muds to 

 practically nothing. 



Quite another picture is observed in the shallow coastal zone of the Kara 

 Sea (on the average less than 50 m deep). Benthos is fairly abundant here and 

 there is quite a large number of fish. 



Fish 



In respect of brackish-water forms, suitable conditions for developing local 

 fisheries exist in the southern part of the Sea, off the mainland and along the 

 coast of Novaya Zemlya. Raw material for this would come chiefly from Arctic 

 Sea whitefish (coregonoids), frostfish (Osmeridae), navaga and arctic cod 

 (Gadidae) and among the other families Polar dab and goby. Many other 

 fish are caught there of the coregonoids and certain salmon (beardie, Stenodus 

 leucicthus nelma, grayling and others) and herring. Cod is fairly frequently 

 caught off the Novaya Zemlya coast, especially within the regions of the Kara 

 Gates and Matochkin Shar. 



The exceptional poverty of the fish population of the open parts of the Kara 

 Sea is obvious from the following fact. In 1945 a trawler expedition worked in 

 the Kara Sea. A commercial otter-trawl was in operation for 43 hours in 

 different parts of the Sea. The total amount offish caught was about 500 small- 

 sized specimens, of a total weight of a few dozen kilogrammes. 



Zoogeographical composition of the fauna. The nine following benthos groups 

 may be distinguished in the Kara Sea fauna, according to the nature of their 

 geographical range : (7) Arctic (mostly high Arctic) circumpolar forms ; (2) 

 Forms of the eastern sector of the Arctic. To these two groups, forming the 

 nucleus of our Siberian Sea fauna, belong no less than 50 per cent of all the 

 Kara Sea benthos. In the group of the Arctic forms of the Arctic eastern sector, 



