Methods and results in the joint PINRO-IMR stomach sampling program

Abstract

In 1984IMR started a stomach samling program om cod (Gadus morhua) in the Barents Sea. The aim of the program was to provide the multispecies model with the quantitative data on the cod's food selection. Later other species have been included in the investigations. In 1987 PINRO joinrf the program, and the two countries have almost identical methods for samling at sea, laboratory analyses and computer registration of the data. Stomach data are exchanged annually on data medium and the two countries have built up identical stomach content data bases. The data base now contains information from more than 56000 individually analysed fish. 40000 of these are cod, and the majority (34000) are sampled from 1984 to 1990. A number of works are based on the stomach data base; describing the diet of several species and the cod stock's food consumption, comparing individual groth and food consumption in the cod stock and calculation mortality on several preys induced by cod.