Investigations on demersal fish in the Barents Sea winter 2000 : detailed report

Abstract

A combined acoustic and bottom trawl survey to obtain indices of abundance and estimates of length and weight at age has been carried out each winter (4-6 weeks in January-March) since 1981 in the Barents Sea. The target species are cod and haddock, but in recent years abundance indices have also been worked out for the redfish species and Greenland halibut. Since 1993 the survey area has been extended to the north and east in order to obtain a more complete coverage of the younger age groups of cod. In winter 1997 only the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea and a small part of the Svalbard area was covered, while in 1998 also a small part of the Russian EEZ was covered. In 1999 and 2000 the vessels had full access to the Russian EEZ.