7. Biological signs of warming of the arctic. It is known that during the past years, fish 

 (of fishing industry varieties) have ranged further and further to the north. For example, starting 

 with 1929 cod in large quantities have appeared along the shores of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. 

 In connection with this , the fish catch is increasing in the northern waters . 



Thus, according to data of the International Council for the Study of the Sea, the catch of fish 

 has increased in the Barents Sea. The fishing industry has likewise grown along the shores of 

 Greenland, while from the water which washes Norway, Bear Island and Spitzbergen in recent years 

 there has been taken 20 per cent of all the fish caught by north and northwest Europe in the Atlantic 

 Ocean. The increase in catch of fish has occurred mainly as a result of mastering of the Bear 

 Island fishing banks. Thus, during recent years the center of gravity of world fishing has gradually 

 shifted into the Arctic waters, and this unquestionably must be ascribed in considerable degree to 

 the warming of these waters . * 



In addition, the investigations of Knipovlch and the Oceanolographical Institute show that in 

 connection with the warming of the Barents Sea, many heat-loving bottom organisms, in particular 

 certain Echinodermata, are now found in regions where these organisms were not found by the 

 Northern Scientific Industrial Expedition which worked in the Barents Sea in the period 1900 to 

 1906. Basing his conclusions on these facts, Knipovlch says: "In a matter of fifteen years or in an 

 even shorter time interval there occurred a change in distribution of specimens of sea fauna such as 

 is usually associated with long geological intervals." 



8. Ship navigation. A ship passing through an ice region is not always an Indication of 

 greater or lesser ice abundance of that region. The proper choice of course and time of passage 

 may assure the success of the operation while an incorrect choice of these conditions by a ship of 

 the same tjrpe may create the impression of great quantities of ice. Thus, for example, a vessel 

 which attempted to traverse the Northern Sea Route at any cost In August 1936 would have gotten the 

 impression that the route was completely impassable due to ice. On the contrary, a through pas- 

 sage of the Northern Sea Route in the second half of September of that year did not present partic- 

 ular difficulties. In addition, it is very difficult to compare navigation along the Northern Sea Route 

 at the start of the present century, for example, and at the present time, because the Northern Sea 

 Route is now much better equipped technically. The widely developed net of radio and weather sta- 

 tions , ice reconnaissance by ships and planes , hydrographic equipping of the route , new naviga- 

 tional maps, and finally, accumulated knowledge and experience make present-day navigation con- 

 siderably easier. We may nevertheless point out a number of ship voyages which could hardly have 

 been accomplished in the preceding cold period. Among these are: our voyage on the sail- 

 taotorhosA Knipo vie h around Franz Joseph Land In 1932, the rounding of Severnaya Zemlya by the 

 icebreaker Sibiryakov in the same year, through passages by ordinary steamships of the whole 

 Northern Sea Route in 1935 (no ice being found on the route), etc. Further we know that starting 

 with 1930 there was not a single year when It would have been Impossible to round Novaya Zemlya 

 from the north even in a ship which was entirely unsuited for navigation in ice. At the same time we 

 know that the icebreaker Yermak In 1901 attempted to round Cape Zhelanla from the west and was 

 unsuccessful, although the Yermak spent almost a month In a struggle with the ice while waiting at 

 the northwest shores of Novaya Zemlya. 



♦Mackerel formerly were not found north of Nordkapp, yet in 1937 was caught at Matochkin 

 Shar. Dolphin were formerly not found east of Kaninski Peninsula, but were seen in 1933 east of 

 Taimyr. 



475 



