Merking av rusefanget torsk i områdene Smøla-Helgeland

Abstract

The recaptures of trap net caught cod tagged during January and February 195G and 1957 and November 1957 in different localities along the Norwegian Coast (Fig. l) have been studied. On the tagging localities the cod migrate in winter from shallow waters into deeper waters. After staying here during winter and summer the cod return into rnore shallow waters. The experiments south of Vikna (Fig. 2) have demonstrated a predominant migration in a southerly direction. A migration from the tagging localities in the area Vikna-Helgeland (Fig. 4) into the fjords in the same area has also been shown. The numbers recaptured in the fishing area during the season of tagging depends on where and when the fish are liberated. The fish recaptured before the 30th July in the tagging year are left out of consideration, and the number unaccounted for at the the 30th June is taken as basis when calculating the percentage recaptured during the following periods. The total numbers returned from the cod tagged south of Vikna are 19-38 percent (Table 5). For the Vikna and Helgeland experiments the totalnumbers returned are 9 percent and ll-18 percent respectively (Table 5). Almost all tags returned have been recovered by Norvegian fishermen.