GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FAR EASTERN SEAS 711 



Table 288. Biomass of bottom-living biocoenoses of eastern shores of Kamchatka and 



northern Kuril Islands 



Pachycheles stevensii, Pandalus latirostris, Spirontocaris ochotensis mororani, 

 Puggetia quadridens, Cancer gibbosulus, Eriocheir japonicus; the molluscs 

 Turbo sangarensis, Pot amides aterrina, Purpura japonica, Pec ten jessoensis, P. 

 swiftii, Venerupia philippinarum, Ostrea gigas; the echinoderms Disto- 

 laterias elegans, Lysatrosoma anthosticta, Aphelasterias japonica, and many 

 others. 



In the so-called Nemuoro Sea, which is situated between Kunashir Island 

 and the small Kuril Ridge, the two heterogenous faunas — the cold-water fauna 

 of the shallows of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas and the warm- water fauna of 

 subtropical origin common with that of the southeastern part of the Sea of 

 Japan — are, in view of their hydrological environment and the distribution of 

 water masses, exceptionally well mixed with each other. The north-Pacific 

 boreal fauna, which does not penetrate farther north than the Nemuoro Sea 

 (P. Ushakov, 1951), forms the basic stock of the whole fauna. 



The fauna of the southeastern end of the Sea of Okhotsk is nearer in its 

 composition to that of the Sea of Japan than to that of the Sea of Okhotsk. 



Whereas the exchange of fauna between the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan 

 through the Tartary Strait is greatly restricted, it proceeds on a large scale 

 through the Sengara Strait (P. Ushakov, 1955). Warm-water fauna of the 

 southern Kuril Islands penetrates there through the Sengara Strait with the 

 warm Tsushima waters (Soya current). Along the western side of the Sea this 

 fauna only reaches the Gulf of Peter the Great. On the other hand, some cold- 

 water species of the Sea of Okhotsk can penetrate south along the Sakhalin 

 coast into the Sea of Japan, mostly during the cold season. 



The abyssal fauna of the Kuril-Kamchatka trench. For ten years (1949-59) the 

 Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences of the u.s.s.r. has carried 

 out a study of the Pacific Ocean deep-water fauna using the Vityaz. To start 

 with this work proceeded side by side with that done on the Danish vessel 

 Galathea. Both expeditions brought to light much new knowledge on the 

 fauna of the oceanic depths, of that living not only in the ocean bed, but also 

 in the trenches, down to their greatest depths. 



