THE BERING SEA 839 



of the bottom-living fauna throughout the Bering Sea from all the data 

 collected on this problem (Fig. 427). 



Fish 



The Bering Sea contains about 315 species of fish (A. Andriashev, 1939, 

 with T. Rass's corrections) ; 1 12 of them are common with the Sea of Okhotsk. 

 Most of the species are cold-water boreal forms but certain true Arctic 

 species are recorded among them. Three main fauna elements can be dis- 

 tinguished (A. Andriashev, 1935); the Asian element: 122 species, genetic- 

 ally linked with the fauna of the other Far Eastern Seas; the American: 107 

 species, connected with the fauna of the American coast ; and the Polar ele- 

 ment : composed of 5 to 7 Arctic species (Ulcina olriki, Boreogadus saida and 

 others). South-boreal species, for example Sardinops sagax melanosticta and 

 Engraulis japonicus, enter the southwestern part of the Sea singly. 



The following families, constituting about 70 per cent of all the fish, are 

 the richest in species : Cottidae (65 species), Liparidae (46), Zoarcidae (24), 

 Pleuronectidae (23), Stichaeidae (18), Agonidae (14), Salmonidae (12), and 

 Scorpaenidae (10). 



The Bering Sea has about 30 deep-water oceanic spieces offish, among them 

 Macruridae (7), Gonostomidae (4), and Scopelidae (4) (T. Rass, 1954). There 

 are 48 secondary deep-water species, among them Liparidae (24), Zoarcidae 

 (8), Cottidae (5), and Scorpaenidae (4). 



Approximately 25 species are of commerical value; among the most 

 important are herring (Clupea pallasi) and salmon (Oncorhynchus keta, O. 

 gorbuscha, O. nerka. O. tschawytscha, O. kisutch, and Salvelinus malma); 

 frostfish {Osmerus eperlanus dentex, Hypomesus olidus) ; cod (Gadus macro- 

 cephalus) ; navaga (Eleginus gracilis) ; halibut and flatfish (Hippoglossus steno- 

 lepis, Reinhardtius matsuurae, Hippoglossoides robustus, Limanda aspera, 

 Platessa quadrituberculata, Lepidopsetta bilineatd) ; sterling {Pleurogrammus 

 monopterygius) and others. So far the fisheries of the Bering Sea proper are 

 poorly developed, less than those in the adjacent waters of eastern Kamchatka 

 and southwestern Alaska. The fish stocks of this body of water should not be 

 estimated by the present fish yield. Much greater numbers of plaice, halibut, 

 sea bass (Sebastes), sterling, cod, frostfish and capelin could be taken in this 

 sea (T. Rass, 1955). 



As a result of a zoogeographical analysis of the Bering Sea fauna Ya. 

 Birstein and M. Vinogradov (1952), taking Decapoda as an example, came 

 to the conclusion that the influence of the Arctic conditions is perceptible : 

 32-4 per cent of the species are found to be pan-Arctic, low-Arctic, Arctic- 

 boreal, low Arctic-boreal, sub-Arctic and sub-Arctic-boreal. This applies to 

 the decapod fauna (about a hundred species) throughout the Sea. The per- 

 centage rises to 38 T if the species recorded only off Unalashka Island are 

 excluded. The Arctic aspect of the fauna stands out even more sharply in the 

 northern part of the Sea. These two investigators have made an interesting 

 comparison of their data (obtained for the Bering Sea) with those for the Sea 

 of Okhotsk {Table 328). 



The amphi-Pacific character of the fauna distribution is fairly pronounced 



