Walleye pollock Gadus chalcogrammus Pallas, 1814 found north of Spitsbergen indicates a Pacific-Atlantic connection in the species

Abstract

A small (36.5 cm) female walleye pollock Gadus chalcogrammus Pallas, 1814 was caught north of Spitsbergen in2011. The specimen had a high number of pyloric caeca (n=109), indicating a Pacific origin. The record is the firstevidence of a possible input to the small Atlantic population of walleye pollock from the large populations on thePacific side.

Walleye Pollock Gadus chalcogrammus, a Species with Continuous Range from the Norwegian Sea to Korea, Japan, and California: New Records from the Siberian Arctic

“…Judging by the age of the fish in the samples, such migrations can take several years. However, it should be noted that recently a walleye pollock with a length of 36.5 cm was caught in the waters north of Svalbard [78], which does not quite fit into the hypothesis we proposed. Nevertheless, based on the morphological features, the authors assume the North Pacific origin of this individual.…”

“…The new data obtained by us on the records of walleye pollock in the Siberian Arctic allow us to present a hypothetical scheme of its dispersion from the North Pacific. The distribution of walleye pollock in the North Atlantic is limited to the coastal waters of the Norwegian Sea from the west, to the north of the Kolguev Island from the east, and to the waters north of the Svalbard from the north [6,78], according to our data. At the same time, records of this species in this area are extremely rare [7] and are mainly represented by large adult fish [22][23][24]28].…”