摘要:A close connection between environmental fluctuations and variation in recruitment, growth,
distribution and migration of fish in the Barents and Norwegian Seas was suggested already by
Helland-Hansen and Nansen (1909) and has been well documented during recent years (e.g.
Gj.s.ter and Loeng, 1987; Ottersen and Sundby, 1995; Tretyak et al., 1995; Loeng et al., 1995;
Ottersen and Loeng, 2000; Toresen and .stvedt, 2000).
This report is intended as a rough overview of the Barents Sea ecosystem. It gives the ecosystem
status for 2004, compared to a historical perspective. If possible the situation for 2005 will also
be treated, mostly based on subjective evaluation of knowledge. The aim of this report is to give
background information for the ICES fishery assessment working groups on elements in the
ecosystem, which may be of importance for the evaluation of the commercial fish stocks in the
Barents Sea. Due to this focus the status of the fish stocks is not presented specifically, but
instead important trophic relations are pointed out.
Much of the information in the presented report is based on an ecosystem status report from IMR
(Anon 2005a), which is in Norwegian.