Dynamics of spawning migrations in Northeast Arctic cod

• Published in: Ecology
• Main Author: Opdal, Anders Frugård
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: The University of Bergen 2010
• Subjects: VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Marine biology: 497; Arctic; Barents Sea; Lofoten; Norway; Arctic cod; Finnmark; Northeast Arctic cod; Vestfjorden; Skrei
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1956/4583

The Northeast Arctic (NA) cod is known to undertake long southbound spawning migrations from their feeding grounds in the Barents Sea, to various spawning grounds along the Norwegian coast. Hence it’s native Norwegian name “skrei”, meaning to move or to travel. The spawned eggs and larvae subsequently drift northwards along with the prevailing currents, eventually reaching the Barents Sea as juveniles. From commercial fisheries statistics we see that these spawning grounds once spanned across nearly 2000 km of the west coast of Norway, from Finnmark in the north to Vest-Agder at the very south. Today the latitudinal range of the spawning grounds is significantly reduced, with only a marginal part of the stock spawning as far south as Møre, some 1500 km from the Barents Sea. Coarse estimates from the Institute of Marine Research suggest that around 90 - 95 % of the spawning stock spawn from Lofoten and northwards, utilizing only a third of their original expanse. Also, recent scientific surveys have found that during the last decade, the NA cod have to a great extent stopped spawning at their major traditional grounds in Vestfjorden, Lofoten, and have relocated to more northbound areas. Historically, scientists have shown little interest in the changes in spawning grounds, but due to the major impact this recent shift has had on local fishermen and landing ports, the topic currently attracts noticeable interest from fisheries scientists as well as climate scientists. The NA cod’s previous widespread spawning distribution, together with its historical and contemporary northbound shifts has spurred two major research questions addressed in this thesis. First, why does spawning take place over such a vast geographical area, implying that certain parts of the population undergo spawning migrations several thousands of kilometres further than their conspecifics? Secondly, what has caused the northbound shift in spawning grounds? From general evolutionary theory, we would expect that individuals undertaking longer ...