Fish fauna of the Chukchi Sea and perspectives of its commercial use

Abstract

Based on studies of 1995–2010 and other registered captures of fishes and fish-like over the entire history of the study of the Chukchi Sea, a list of its fish fauna species is compiled, including 110 species belonging to 68 genera, 26 families, and 11 orders. Taxonomic diversity of the fish fauna is considered and its characteristics for belonging to a geographical area and biotopical groups of fish are given. For the ratio of species, genera, and families, the fish fauna of the Chukchi Sea is significantly more diverse than that of the other Arctic seas, including the Barents Sea, and demonstrates a certain similarity for these indicators with the fish fauna of the western Bering Sea. Fish communities of the Chukchi Sea are dominated by Cottidae, Zoarcidae, Pleuronectidae, Stichaeidae, Agonidae, and Salmonidae, constituting a total of 73 species, or 66.4% of the species diversity. Benthic fishes of elittoral and sublittoral complexes dominate in terms of the biotopic belonging (74 species, 67.2%); arctic, arctic-boreal, and Pacific and Asiatic boreal species (89 species, 80.9%) dominate in terms of the zoogeographic belonging. Information availability for the bioresource potential of the Chukchi Sea is insufficient: fishing is not carried out or there are no accessible data on it. Most of the fish fauna of the Chukchi Sea (68 species or 61.8% of species diversity) consists of rare species. Out of the 42 species regularly registered in the fishing gear, 11 species are recommended for commercial use.