THE SEA OF AZOV 525 



In the Gulf of Taganrog the western part is the most important feeding 

 ground ; the main mass of adult fish remains there temporarily on its way to 

 spawn in the river Don and on the way back again ; fish fry and immature 

 fish are fattened there to a great extent. Huge shoals of fish under one year 

 old, of one-, two- and three-year old pike perch, bream, carp, Pelecus, herring, 

 etc. gather in the Gulf of Taganrog, especially in summer and autumn. Only 

 the Clupeidae prey mainly on plankton ; the other fish feed on benthos. Of 

 the benthos only the large Unionidae, Monodacna and Dreissena are used 

 in small amounts by fish : all of the rest is consumed by fish. 



As shown by V. P. VorobiefT(1938) bream is a real polyphage. In the course 

 of its life, however, bream changes its diet. Its fry feeds mainly on plankton, 

 then bream begins to prey on the larvae of insects, worms and crustaceans ; 

 large adult bream lives on worms, molluscs and large crayfish. 



Predatory fish. The pike perch is the main commercial fish of the Sea of Azov; 

 in the amount of its yield it is inferior only to Clupeonella (721,000 centners 

 in 1937). As a predator pike perch preys mainly on fish; prawns form an 

 addition to its food. It is the main consumer of small fish in the Sea of Azov. 

 Together with other predators, such as herrings and bullheads (Mesogobius 

 melanostromus and Neogobius syrmari), beluga, catfish, Pelecus, Aspius aspius 

 and others, it destroys a huge amount of small fish ; it could in this respect 

 appear as a rival of man. As Maisky has noted (1939), pike perch fattens 

 mainly in the Gulf of Taganrog and the eastern part of the Sea of Azov. In the 

 course of a year it destroys 3 to 3-5 million centners of small fish, a quantity 

 much higher than that taken by man from the whole fishing industry in the 

 Sea of Azov. In addition bullhead comprises 55 to 60 per cent, Clupeonella 

 14 to 15 per cent and anchovy 11 to 12 per cent of the food eaten by the pike 

 perch; 



In spring and summer pike perch feeds mostly on Clupeonella and anchovy, 

 and in the autumn almost exclusively on bullhead. The pike perch's annual 

 consumption of fish, according to Karpevitch's data, is about seven times its 

 own weight. 



Fisheries. The fisheries of the Sea of Azov at present bring in about 1-5 

 million centners (IT 5 million centners in 1930, and 2-75 million centners in 

 1936); but the yield of the most valuable fish — pike perch, golden shiner, 

 herring and Acipenseridae — has decreased. The catch of Clupeonella, and 

 particularly of bullhead, has increased (L. Berdichevsky, 1957). 



The catch in the Sea of Azov (without the Kerch Strait) was 1 -05 millon 

 centners in 1957, comprising 90 thousand centners of pike perch, 41 thousand 

 centners of golden shiner, 80 thousand centners of roach {Rutilus rutilus) 

 and 733 thousand centners of bullhead. In 1937 the catch of different breeds 

 offish was only the following : 81,900 tons of Clupeonella, 72,100 tons of pike 

 perch, 50,400 tons of anchovy, 34,100 tons of bream, 3,900 tons of roach, 

 1,200 tons of carp, 7,500 tons of Acipenseridae, 6,200 tons of herring, 4,400 

 tons of bullhead and 1 1 ,900 tons of other fish, totalling 277,500 tons. 



The yield from the fisheries in the Sea of Azov constituted then some 90 per 



