LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Barents Sea
built 634 days ago
The Barents Sea is the continental shelf north of the Scandanavian peninsula. Cod stocks in the Barents Sea are influenced both by fishing and by climate. The production or recruitment of cod (bars in top figure, below), is thought to be related to the flow of warm water into the Barents sea from the North Atlantic Ocean. A recruitment increase occurred in the mid-1970s and 1990s, when there were warm ocean temperatures north of Scandanavia (the Kola Peninsula), shown by the red curve in the middle figure below. Capelin are a food source for cod and whales. Capelin biomass shows large variability over the last twenty-five years.
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The Barents Sea is an oceanic region, part of the Arctic Ocean, unique in its biodiversity and resources. The area is quite large, and amounts to 1,300,000 square kilometers, which is equivalent to 501,933 square miles (Based on the formula: 1 sq km = 0.3861 sq mile. Conversion available from: http://www.sciencemadesimple.net/EASYarea.html). As described in a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Barents Sea is among the largest shallow continental shelf areas in the world and sea temperatures are far more stable than land temperatures in this area. They go on to state that “Due to influxes of warm air and water from the south, these areas are generally the mildest and most humid parts of the Arctic. These ocean and air currents, along with the Transpolar Current flowing out from the Arctic Basin into the waters of the European Arctic... make the area a "sink" for long-range contaminants and pollutants,” (EEA, 1999).
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Due to the North Atlantic drift, the Barents Sea has a high biological production compared to other oceans of similar latitude. The spring bloom of phytoplankton can start quite early close to the ice edge, because the fresh water from the melting ice makes up a stable water layer on top of the sea water. The phytoplankton bloom feeds zooplankton such as Calanus finmarchicus, Calanus glacialis, Calanus hyperboreus, Oithona spp., and krill. The zooplankton feeders include young cod, capelin, polar cod, whales and Little Auk. The capelin is a key food for top predators such as the North-East Arctic cod, harp seals, and seabirds such as Common Guillemot and Brunnich's Guillemot. The fisheries of the Barents Sea, in particular the cod fisheries, are of great importance for both Norway and Russia.
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The presence of the drilling rig Erik Raude in the Barents Sea illustrates the global nature of the offshore oil business. There is ... a Canadian connnection to what is going on in your part of the world. The Erik Raude was built in Canada, and has operated in Canada, Cuba, and Scandinavia. It is often hailed as the kind of rig that would be used in the Queen Charlotte Basin, off the North Coast of British Columbia. This is an area remarkably similar to Norway's Lofoten Islands. The Queen Charlotte Basin is characterised by a deeply indented coast, with steep fjords, tremendous biodiversity, lucrative fishery, etc.
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Murmansk has seen an extended depressed economy but oil and natural gas development in the Barents Sea is starting to give the economy a boost. Many believe that up to 25% of the world’s remaining oil and natural gas reserves are in the Arctic and activity in the Shtokman Gas Field (largest offshore field in the world) and the Prirazlmnoye Oil Field are close to Murmansk. The BBC article says “Murmansk is set to become Russia’s version of the Arab states.”
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Despite recent diplomatic negotiations, the long-standing dispute between Russia and Norway regarding their maritime boundaries in the Barents Sea has not yet been resolved. In 1920, Norway’s sovereignty over a group of islands called Svalbard was established through the Svalbard Treaty and five years later it officially took over the territory. Once this sovereignty had been established, Norway ... claimed a territory of 200 Nautical Miles (NM) as exclusively theirs for fishing. Though accepted by 40 other nations that were signatories to the Svalbard Treaty, this claim was never recognized by Russia, who claims to have fishing rights beyond Svalbard’s territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty zone –a claim which Norway refutes.
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Barents Sea