Distribution of pelagic fish in the Pacific waters of the Kuril Islands in September — October 2020

The materials of scientific research work in the Pacific waters of the Kuril Islands in the period of September — October 2020 are presented. The joint flow of the coastal and seaward branches of the Oyashio formed a zone of below zero temperature anomalies. Soy stream waters were characterized by positive temperature anomalies. According to acoustic data, the occurrence of Far Eastern sardine and Japanese mackerel was recorded in a wide range of ocean surface temperature from 8.4 °C to 19.9 °C, however, trawling in the ocean surface temperature range for S. melanostictus — 14.3–15.5 °C, and for S. japonicus — 14.2–15.1 °C turned out to be more effective. The number and biomass of Japanese mackerel amounted to 756.6 million specimens and 61.5 thousand tons, Far Eastern sardine — 3924.2 million specimens and 144.3 thousand tons, respectively. The number and biomass of the entire trawl nekton in the study area amounted up to 30749.6 million specimens and 264.5 thousand tons.