Laichgebiete des Dorschs in der westlichen Ostsee

Analyses of the previous years showed that the reproduction of the Belt Sea cod stock (Gadus morhua morhua) is also very important for the cod stock of the central Baltic Sea (Gadus morhua calarias). Oeberst (1999, 2000) proved, that between 20 % and 50 % of the cods caught in the Bornholm Sea at the age of 2 or 3 years between 1994 and 1998, were spawned in the Belt Sea. On account of this large significance of the Belt Sea cod stock, information regarding the reproduction process are important. The goal of the article presented is the description of the actual spawning areas of the Belt Sea cod stock by means of the spatial distribution of the spawners based on characteristic parameters as the maturity stages and the proportion of the sexes. The basis for these analyses are data sampled between 1992 and 1999. The analyses showed that the actual main spawning areas in the western Baltic Sea were the deeper regions of the Kiel Bay, of the Fehmarn Bay and of the western Mecklenburg Bay. In these regions spawning cods were regularly observed with high intensity. Furthermore, the deeper basin of the Arkona Sea is an important spawning area.

Erste Ergebnisse zum Verlauf der Laichsaison von Dorschen in der westlichen Ostsee 1997

Investigations concerning the intensity and duration of spawning seasons of cod stocks are parts of the work of the reproductions ecology of commercial fish stocks in the Baltic Sea. The Institute of Baltic Fisheries Rostock has sampled and analysed data for this goal since 1992. The first data analyses for the spawning season 1997, sampled in the areas Kiel Bay, Mecklenburg Bay and Arkona Sea showed that the process of the spawning season is different compared to the years before. The spawning process starts earlier than the other years in Kiel Bay and Mecklenburg Bay. The results show that a high proportion of the spawning stock was part of the spawning process in this area. The Arkona Sea cod are regarded by ICES definition as belonging to the western cod stock. In this ICES sub-division only a low number of spawned cod was observed in March, the main spawning time of the western cod stock. Opposite to the theory of the stock units intensive spawning activities were observed in June as in the years before in the Arkona Sea.

Die biologischen Voraussetzungen für einen guten Dorschnachwuchs verbesserten sich 1994 in der westlichen Ostsee

The investigations on the fecundity of cod from different areas of the Baltic Sea started in 1992. The samples were collected in ICES Sub-divisions 25 (Bornholm Sea). 24 (Arkona Sea) and 22 (Mecklenburg and Kiel Bay). This article surnmarizes the results of 435 analysed gonads from females of age groups 1 to 8 with total length of 24 - 116 cm of the years 1992 to 1995. The gonads were prepared and analysed according to the methods which were deseribed in Bleil and Oeberst (1993). The aim of the investigations is to estimate the reproduction potential of cod for different areas and years. For this reason the absolute and relative fecundity were analysed for estimating the dependence on the total length, for age groups and the weight of females. These data were estimated for the populations Gadus morhua morhua and Gadus morhua callarias. Preliminary results have shown that the absolute fecundity (fabs) is dependent on whole weight of the females. The influence of sub-divisions (SD) and years to the fecundity are very low. Additional to this data was calculated the population fecundity for the western Baltic Sea stock (SD 22 and 24). The numbers of produced ripe eggs within the western Baltic were estimated with 4055.59 x 10(9) for 1993 and 6949.85 x 10(9) for 1994.