The data can help determine the fate of future offshore oil and gas exploitation in the region.
From 1959 to 1993, Soviet − and in the last few years, Russian − scientists cruised the Barents Sea and off Norway’s Lofoten Archipelago to collect data. Their data collection was far more extensive than material gathered by Norwegians during the same period. The data have been stored in Murmansk and have now been digitalized.
Marine biologists and other scientists can now use the comprehensive database in their computerized models. The data are in the hands of the Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography, known as PINRO. PINRO, based in Murmansk, has been collaborating with Norwegian researchers for years.
The Cold War did not prevent the USSR from running annual voyages with research vessels off the northern coast of Norway. They took samples of cod eggs, larvae and zooplankton. Their goal was to learn about the first weeks of a cod’s life. Researchers from Norway and Russia are using the PINRO data to estimate the proportion of cod eggs that survive hatching and live for the first few weeks.
“We have precious little empirical data showing how eggs actually survive,” says Leif C. Stige, a researcher at the University of Oslo’s Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) to ScienceNordic. Stige is one of the researchers behind a new Norwegian-Russian study based on the data from the Soviet oceanographic voyages.
Earlier studies of eggs from various cod stocks have shown differing results. These have all been based on shorter timespans than the Norwegian-Russian study. The new results will contribute to more accurate models, especially in relation to how the ecosystem develops along with climate change.
The survivability of eggs is also a key issue of contention in terms of the risks posed by prospective oil and gas projects off the coast of Lofoten and other spawning waters. The cod’s egg and larval stages are also the most vulnerable to the impact of oil spills.
“If an oil spill kills a certain share of eggs or larvae, let’s say ten to 15 percent, you might expect a loss in recruitment in that range,” says Stige.
The report “Egg mortality of northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua) and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus)” was published in ICES Journal of Marine Science in March 2013.
