New distribution records of fish species found in the Central Arctic Ocean

Abstract

The melting of sea ice in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) is more severe than previously expected. When this physical barrier disappears, fishing vessels without ice-breaking capability may enter the CAO ifprofitable. The international community has repeatedly called for this issue to be considered with the potential of adverse ecological consequences usually caused by unregulated fisheries.In 2021, the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean, which took nine nations and the European Union years to negotiate, finally entered into force. The Agreementdemonstrated the lack of knowledge about CAO fishes and encouraged scientists to conduct surveys. The Scientific Coordinating Group (SCG) of the Preparatory Conference for the Agreement has had several discussions in order to provide the best available scientific information. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize the fish surveys of the Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) for devoting to establish the fish composition and distribution baselines, because the CHINARE has the largest number of voyages and stations in the region. In the present study, we report a list of 30 fish species in the CAO, including the first occurrence of six fish species.