576 



BIOLOGY OF THE SEAS OF THE U.S.S.R. 



sturgeon, marine pike-perch, the roach Rutilus frisii kutum and some other 

 fish are beginning to eat it. Ducks, wintering on the shore of the Caspian, feed 

 intensively on the Mytilaster of the neighbouring cliffs. They have begun to 

 winter in places colonized by it where they had never appeared before owing 



Fig. 272. Distribution of Mytilaster lineatus bio- 

 mass in the Caspian Sea in 1938 (Brotzky and 

 Netzengevitch). 



to the absence of food. Black Sea grey mullet (Mugil auratus and M. saliens) 

 were successfully acclimatized in the Caspian in 1930. The prawns Leander 

 rectirostris and L. squilla, brought in with the grey mullet, have multiplied as 

 prolifically as Mytilaster during the last thirty years. 



According to Yu. Marti's data (1940, 1941) the fry chiefly of M. auratus, 

 and in considerably smaller numbers of M. cephalus and M. saliens, were 

 brought into the Caspian Sea. M. cephalus fry do not easily endure transport 

 and must have perished. M. auratus is now widely distributed throughout th- 



