Summary
Polar cod (Boreogadus saida) associated with drifting sea-ice were collected in the western Barents sea and north of Svalbard with dip-nets while SCUBA-diving in 1986 and 1987. Length-frequency measurements and otolith-readings suggested that the specimens were either one or two years old. The diet of fish from the western Barents sea (first-year ice) consisted mainly of copepods (Calanus finmarchicus, Calanus glacialis) and the hyperiid amphipod Parathemisto libellula. Fish collected north of the Svalbard archipelago (multi-year ice) had a more diverse diet, in which P. libellula and the sympagic amphipod Apherusa glacialis contributed more to the total diet biomass than copepods.
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Lønne, O.J., Gulliksen, B. Size, age and diet of polar cod, Boreogadus saida (Lepechin 1773), in ice covered waters. Polar Biol 9, 187–191 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00297174
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00297174