When a Norwegian longliner docked last year with a full fishroom of cod caught around Jan Mayen, there was immediate speculation as to where this fish had appeared from – in an area that isn’t known for heavy cod fishing.
Now the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research Havforskningsinstituttet has completed its analysis of the cod from JanMayen, concluding that the fish in question are a mixture of cod from the Barents Sea and from Icelandic waters.
Samples from the catch taken by longliner Loran in Jan Mayen waters were examined, and DNA and otolith analyses were carried out on fish caught in six different positions.
‘Of 86 fish, 82 were over 65cm and at least nine years old, and this was a mixture of Barents Sea and Icelandic cod,’ said researcher Bjarte Bogstad.
This answers the questions that had been asked about whether fishermen had discovered a new cod stock in an area where fishing for cod has been minimal in the past.
‘There was a good correlation between the two analysis methods, and the genetic analysis detected a larger proportion of Barents Sea cod,’ he said.
This year Havforskningsinstituttet plans to conduct a limited cod survey in the Jan Mayen zone, although most of this area is too deep for cod.
