Composition of fish species in the Bering and Chukchi Seas and their responses to changes in the ecological environment

Ichthyofaunal Baselines in the Pacific Arctic Region and RUSALCA Study Area

“…However, the only known spawning and nursery area for B. parmifera is in the southern Bering Sea on the outer shelf at the edge of the Aleutian Basin (Hoff, 2008), and it is hard to see how the egg cases could have drifted so far northward, across the broad Chukchi shelf and onto the slope. Although egg cases of B. parmifera have been reported from the high Arctic north of the Chukchi Sea (Lin et al, 2012(Lin et al, , 2014, from photographs provided to us they were determined to belong to A. hyperborea. Nevertheless, some overlap of the species along the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea slopes may be indicated and it should not be assumed that all observations or specimens of skates from the Chukchi and Beaufort slope are A. hyperborea.…”

“…Several papers report presence in the catches of individual ichthyological or fishery investigations. For instance, Rand and Logerwell (2011) reported a preliminary list of species taken in a NOAA AFSC trawl survey in 2008 in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea, and Lin et al (2012Lin et al ( , 2014 reported trawl catches by the Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) of 2010 in the northern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea. The present paper reports species presence in the entire Pacific Arctic region and its subregions from complete reviews of the literature and examination of historical and recent collections.…”

“…The assemblages on the continental shelf of each of the seas differ from each other and from the assemblages in the deeper waters of the adjacent slopes and basins. When counting species, most authors combine the slope area with the shelf in the Chukchi Sea (e.g., Lin et al, 2014), and this practice combines assemblages. It makes, for instance, the deepwater species Lycodes seminudus and Artediellus atlanticus appear to be abundant in the shallow Chukchi Sea (with an average depth of 50 m), whereas they truly are restricted to the deeper waters.…”

“…Datsky (2015) listed L. ochotensis from the Chukchi Sea but not L. gibbus, which is very similar in appearance, and presence of L. ochotensis in the Chukchi Sea is unconfirmed. Lin et al (2012Lin et al ( , 2014 listed both species from the Bering Sea and noted that their L. ochotensis specimen, taken southeast of St. Lawrence Island, extended its known distribution northward. Specimens identified by Mamoru Yabe (HUMZ, Hokkaido, Japan) and Morgan S. Busby (NOAA AFSC, Seattle, Washington) and reported in Mecklenburg et al (2002) were caught farther north in the Bering Sea, to 63°20'N, 173°20'W, northwest of St. Lawrence Island (HUMZ 85934).…”

“…A juvenile specimen identified as B. parmifera from the Beaufort Sea was determined to be A. hyperborea (Mecklenburg et al, 2011). Several large juveniles and adults were taken in bottom trawls in the Chukchi Borderland in 2010 (Lin et al, 2012(Lin et al, , 2014 and on the slope of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea in 2012-2014. Beaufort Sea and Greenland Sea specimens yielded identical COI sequences.…”