by

• Main Authors: Marie Storr-paulsen, Jonathan Carl, Kai Wiel
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fulton; Greenland; atlantic cod; northern shrimp
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.581.5378; http://archive.nafo.int/open/sc/2006/scr06-068.pdf

In the most recent years signs of recovery in the offshore cod stock are evident in West Greenland waters and concerns have been raised on the effects of cod predation on the Northern shrimp stock. Since the Atlantic cod stock in the West Greenland offshore waters decreased in the late 1960s and collapsed in the beginning of the 1990s the main commercial fishing effort has been put towards the shrimp fishery. To expose the potential importance of cod predation of Northern shrimp in Greenland offshore waters 686 cod stomachs were in 2005 analysed to determine prey choice in relation to cod distribution. The condition indexes of cod sampled during the summer and fall survey and condition indexes from East and West Greenland were also compared. Cod in the northern NAFO Division (1A-1B) had a higher frequency of occurrence of Northern shrimp in their diet and a lower occurrence of fish as prey than observed in the southern NAFO Division (1F). Cod sampled in the summer survey had a significantly (P<0.001) better condition in the southern area (Fulton K = 0.89) than in the northern areas (Fulton K= 0.79). Differences in summer and fall samples (Fulton K = 0.95 and K=0.99 for East and West Greenland waters, respectively) revealed that condition levels increased in the fall concurrent with a higher proportion of fish and a lower proportion of Northern shrimp in the diet.