Norwegian-Russian cooperation aimed at studying of living marine resources as a basis of sustainable fishery and conservation of the Barents Sea ecosystem Yuri Lepesevich The Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO)

Establishment of personal communications between Knipovich N. and Norwegian scientists The first call of the Russian research vessel «Andrey Pervozvanniy» at Oslo, meeting of N. Knipovich, F. Nansen and J. Hjort Main stages of scientific and technical cooperation between Norwegian and Russian scientists Main stages of scientific and technical cooperation between Norwegian and Russian scientists

The first Russian-Norwegian negotiations on cooperation in fisheries of marine live resources in the Barents Sea Beginning of the actual Russian-Norwegian cooperation in framework of concessions for seal hunting Establishment of the Joint Soviet-Norwegian Expert Commission on biology of seals in northern waters Establishment of official contacts between the USSR and Norway in fisheries researches The first call of Norwegian research vessel «Johan Hjort» at the port of Murmansk The first joint scientific conference at PINRO The first call of RV «PINRO» at the port of Bergen The first joint Soviet-Norwegian survey to estimate abundance of year-classes of main commercial fishes in the Barents Sea Main stages of scientific and technical cooperation between Norwegian and Russian scientists

since 1965 — Annual March meetings between Russian and Norwegian scientists since 1975 — Studies of pelagic fishes in the Barents Sea since 1984 — Russian-Norwegian Symposiums since Joint trawl and acoustic surveys of blue whiting westwards from the British Isles — Experiments to study currents between the northern end of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land since International trawl and acoustic survey to estimate the stocks of Atlantic-Scandinavian herring in the Norwegian and Barents Seas (Russia, the Faroes, Iceland, Germany, Norway) since 2000 — Survey of demersal fishes in the Barents Sea and adjacent waters since 2001 — Investigations of the spawning mackerel in the Norwegian Sea applying the airborne laboratory «Arktika», Norwegian aircraft as well as Russian and Norwegian research and fishing vessels since 2002 — Joint ecosystem survey in the Barents Sea Main stages of scientific and technical cooperation between Norwegian and Russian scientists

Cooperation between PINRO and Norwegian research centres Cooperation between PINRO and Norwegian research centres Institute of Marine Research, Bergen Norwegian Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Tromsø Universities of Bergen and Tromsø Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, Solheimsvik Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim University in Svalbard

Main forms of scientific and technical cooperation between Norwegian and Russian scientists Joint surveys of stocks of commercial fishes in the Barents Sea and adjacent waters Coordination of investigations of marine biological resources conducted in accordance with national programmes Cooperation in framework of international multilateral marine researches and surveys of the stocks Development and realization of joint scientific projects and programmes Annual meetings between Russian and Norwegian scientists Joint scientific symposiums Joint working meetings, workshops and scientific conferences Preparation of responses on requests of the Joint Russian-Norwegian Fisheries Commission Interchange of specialists and experts Preparation of joint publications Interlibrary exchange

Joint Norwegian-Russian ecosystem survey

Joint Norwegian-Russian survey of bottom fish

Joint Norwegian-Russian scientific projects and programmes studying living marine resources Establishment of joint biological and commercial database on the ecosystem of the Barents Sea and adjacent waters (since 2007) Development of the joint model to estimate the stock of the Atlantic- Scandinavian herring (since 2005) Project on the studying of interrelations of living marine resources in the Barents Sea (since 1987) Programme on joint investigations of plankton (since 2003) Programmes on investigations of Greenland halibut ( , ) and development of joint measures for its stock management ( ) Genetic researches of the coastal cod ( ) Programmes on the red king crab studying ( , ) Programme on benthic studies ( ) Programme on the ecology of the Greenland seal ( ) Programmes on the joint age reading of commercial fish species: cod and haddock (since 1992), Greenland halibut ( ), capelin ( )

«The Barents Sea: Ecosystem, Resources and Management. Half a Century of Russian- Norwegian Cooperation» IMR (Bergen, Tromsø), PINRO (Murmansk) - prepared by the decision of the JNRFC; - summarizes a 50-years joint experience of investigations and stock management; -approximately 100 specialists from both institutes participate in the work; - publication is expected at the beginning of 2011.

Guidelines of joint studies Biological studies of living marine resources; Assessment of their stocks; Forecast the catch of aquatic living marine resources; Recommendations for the TAC; Development of technical regulatory measures for fishery; Studying of the environment of aquatic living marine resources; Studying of low trophic levels of the Barents Sea ecosystem; The sea pollution assessment; Studying of diseases and parasites of fish; Studying of influence of introduced species on the ecosystem; Estimation of fisheries impact on the ecosystem and population; dynamics of commercial species et al.

Future challenges in joint research (regarding the joint book) The ecosystem approach, including the development of multispecies and ecosystem modelling as tools for fishery management Optimization of research Improvement of instrumental methods for stock assessment Improvement of data quality Investigation of climate warming effect Development of new fishing equipment for the minimazing the damage for the ecosystem Harmonization of the technical measures Investigations of biodiversity

Dynamics of the total and spawning biomass and catch of the North-East Arctic cod

Dynamics of the total and spawning biomass and catch of the North-East Arctic haddock

Dynamics of the total and spawning biomass and catch of the Barents Sea halibut

Dynamics of the total and spawning biomass and catch of the Barents Sea capelin