151 - 



.lOHS. SCHMIDT 



oceanic waters of such great depth, high temperature and salinity as can only be found 

 out in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. 



Kven if few or none of our gadoids offer such a good example in this regard , yet as 

 we have seen all show a greater or less tendency in the same direction. I shall only 

 mention a few examples here, and firstly the Poutassou {Gadus Poutai^sou). The ac- 

 companying figure (13) shows that this spec- 

 ies, which was first known from the Mediter- 

 ranean, occurs not only over the whole At- 

 lantic but also in the Skager Kak, the North 

 Sea and Norwegian Sea to above 70 N. L., 

 thus under very diverse conditions. But if we 

 study where the spawning occurs (cfr. Chart 

 IV), we find that this only takes place to the 

 W. and S. of the thick broken line on the 

 figure \ therefore only in the true Atlantic 

 and only at places where the temperature is 

 at least ca. 8° and the salinity at least 

 35-25—30 "/oo. Thus although during certain 

 stages of its life it occurs as far north in 

 the polar seas as but few of the most north- 

 erly of our gadoids, yet during the spawn- 

 ing time it appears as a distinctly southern 

 species and belongs to the forms with great- 

 est requirements for high temperatures and 

 salinities. That amongst these it is also 

 the species whose young stages have the 

 longest pelagic life is just the reason why 

 it can drift from the spawning places in the 

 Atlantic with the Atlantic Stream far up into 

 the Norwegian Sea (cf. fig. 13 with the Current 

 Chart fig. 14 p. 158 and with fig. 15 p. 159). 



As the Poutassou is a southern species 

 only the northern boundary lies within the 

 regions investigated and I can therefore give 

 no information regarding the conditions at 

 the southern boundary. As we have seen 

 however, there are several of our species 

 whose northern and southern spawning bound- 

 aries lie within our regions (namely the 



"northern" group of species), and we see in these cases that it is not only in a north- 

 ern direction that the distribution is greater or more extensive than the spawning region 

 but also in a southern direction. The haddock {G. ceglefinus) may be taken as an 



1 According to my researches which show that the young fry of this species are restricted to the 

 true Atlantic as also to friendly information from Dr. Johan Hjort, who has never found these fry in 

 the Norwegian Sea nor in the North Sea. 



Fig. 13. Gadus Poutassou, showing the great differ- 

 ence there may be between the spawning region of 

 a species and its distribution. Although this species 

 only spawns west and south of the dark dotted line, 

 thus only in the Atlantic, we see that its distribu- 

 tion in an easterly and northerly direction alone is 

 much greater. The dark dotted line indicates the 

 north and east boundary of the spawning region 

 whilst the dotted and shaded parts indicate the dis- 

 tribution to the north and east of this i,cf. this 

 figure with the Current Chart fig. 14, p. 158). The 

 dark spots indicate places where adult or adolescent 

 specimens of Gadus Poutassou have been recorded 



