It is interesting to note the smaller number of eggs in this species, a 

 female 1 72 mm (m the 4th stage of sexual maturity) had in one ovary only 580 

 eggs. Saida differ greatly in this respect from other types of the cod family 

 which usually have a great number of eggs (in a treska i meter long, there were 

 9, 000, 000 eggs),l/ The cause of the low egg production is difficult to explain. 

 The pnenomenon must be related to the size of saida and its spawning, but data 

 are almost completely lacking. 



The limited distribution of saida to the south and its absence from the 

 Okhotsk Sea and from cold spots on the east coast of Kamchatka, make us suppose 

 it a newcomer to the northern part of the Bering Sea, as with some other higji 

 arctic species (Ulcina okriki , Artediellus scaber beringianus , Lycodes agnostus , 

 Myoxocephalus quadricomis labradoricus , Gymnocanthys (sic) tricuspis orientalis 

 and others) where it could enter from the polar ocean as a result of post glacial 

 transgressions that interrupted the connection between Asia and America by open- 

 ing of Bermg Strait . 



106 . Theragra chalcogramma (Pallas) 



Mintai are common in Bering Sea, also being found on the Commander, Aleutian 

 and Priblov Ids . According to our data it occurs N. at St. Lawrence Id. and 

 Providence Bay (northernmost record m strait between Chukchi peninsula and 

 St. Lawrence Id.). It is absent in the region of Bering Straits and the Chukchi 

 Sea . The south, on the American coast from Kodiak to Monterey is represented by 

 the subspecies T. chalcogramma fucensis 0ordan & Gilbert).-/ We found it at 19 

 stations in Avachin and Anadyr Gulfs where it is common except m the central 

 cold spot of the latter, where as a rule it is absent. Found at depths of 40 to 

 150 meters, in large schools (to 500 examples in an hours trawling), temperature 

 close to zero (range of -1. 1 to 2.6°, oftener from -0.2 to 1°). Mintai feed on 

 mysidae and Amphipoda . However at Cape Navarin it was found that many stomachs 

 contained Chionoecetes opilio . Spawning, according to V . F . Shmidt's data, occurs 

 from May to June. Our examples were caught in early June and beyond; they were in 2 

 stages of sexual development. It is interesting to note that poorly fed and 

 parasitic mintai were found in the more southern regions; mintai from the Anadyr 

 Gulf were well fed and less infected with parasites. 



1/ 

 2/ 



N. M. Knipowitch. Identification of fish from the White, Barents and Kara 

 Seas, 1926, p. 152. 



T. fucensis (Jordan & Gilbert) differs mainly in a fewer number of dorsal and 

 anal rays and obviously represents a local form (subspecies) that was more com- 

 mon before the post Pliocene as a full species . The same occurence is noted m 

 the Japan Sea, where according to data from V. F. Shmidt, the mintai differ great- 

 ly from Northern examples . Examples of Theragra from Chignik Bay (opposite 

 Kodiak Id.) identified as T. chalcogramma by Scofield (1899, p. 495) is closer to 

 the form fucensis , as it measures: D 11, 16, 17 A 19, 17. 



79 



