true

ISRA FACTSHEETS

POLAR WATERS REGION

ISRA FACTSHEETS

POLAR WATERS REGION

West Spitsbergen ISRA

1/33

West Spitsbergen ISRA

West Spitsbergen

Summary

West Spitsbergen is located in the Svalvard Archipelago of northern Norway. It sits on the slope of the Fram Strait and is characterised by the presence of underwater canyons as well as moraines and plough marks. Within this area there are: undefined aggregations (Arctic Skate Amblyraja hyperborea).

West Spitsbergen

West Spitsbergen

DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT

West Spitsbergen is located in the Svalvard Archipelago of northern Norway. It sits on the slope of the Fram Strait and is characterised by the presence of underwater canyons as well as moraines and plough marks in the Yermak plateau (Dowdeswell et al. 2010).

The area is highly influenced by the transport of warm and saline water from the Atlantic Water passing through the Fram Strait that meets with the less saline and colder waters from the Arctic (Ivanov et al. 2009; Walczowski & Piechura 2011).

This Important Shark and Ray Area is benthic and subsurface and is delineated from 500–1,000 m based on the depth range of Qualifying Species in the area.

CRITERION C

SUB-CRITERION C1 – UNDEFINED AGGREGATIONS

West Spitsbergen is an important area for undefined aggregations of one ray species.

Skates are known to aggregate, with temporal changes related to sex and life-stage segregations (Swain & Benoît 2006; Frisk 2010; Hoff 2016). The presence of these aggregations is usually related to high density areas where large catch quantities of these species occur (Bizzarro et al. 2014). Scientific surveys in the Barents Sea using benthic trawls during the boreal summer-autumn between 2004–2021 showed that aggregations of Arctic Skate regularly occur in West Spitsbergen (Dolgov & Prozorkevich 2022). Relative abundance (individuals/nautical mile2 [NM2]) was calculated as the area of a trawl haul by multiplying the trawl horizontal opening and hauling distance (Dolgov & Prozorkevich 2022). Average trawls had a vertical opening of 4–5 m and a horizontal opening of 15–16 m with a tow duration of 15–30 minutes (Dolgov & Prozorkevich 2022).

This area held the largest abundance (mean: 20–27 individuals/NM2, max: 101 individuals/NM2) of Arctic Skate in all the Barents Sea (Dolgov & Prozorkevich 2022). Individuals of this species were caught in other areas of the region but in lower numbers compared to West Spitsbergen where it was mostly found at depths between 500–1,000 m, with multiple individuals caught in a single haul (Dolgov et al. 2005a, 2005b; Dolgov 2016; Dolgov & Prozorkevich 2022). This was also one of the areas with higher abundance of Arctic Skates between 1996–2001 (Dolgov et al. 2005b). Individuals measuring <20 cm total length (LT) have been reported in the area which is close to the reported size-at-birth for the species (16–18 cm TL; Last et al. 2016). More information is needed to confirm the nature of these aggregations.

West Spitsbergen

SUBMIT A REQUEST

ISRA SPATIAL LAYER REQUEST

To make a request to download the ISRA Layer in either a GIS compatible Shapefile (.shp) or Google Earth compatible Keyhole Markup Language Zipped file (.kmz) please complete the following form. We will review your request and send the download details to you. We will endeavor to send you the requested files as soon as we can. However, please note that this is not an automated process, and before requests are responded to, they undergo internal review and authorization. As such, requests normally take 5–10 working days to process.

Should you have questions about the data or process, please do not hesitate to contact us.

    * indicates required

    Industry or sector (*)

    Under the terms and conditions of our User License Agreement , full and appropriate acknowledgement is required in any materials and publications derived from the data (and copies should be sent to the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group through the contact form). For any publications making substantial use of the data, the ISRA welcomes the opportunity for co-authorship, collaboration, and to comment prior to publication.


    Furthermore, we need to know whether you are a commercial or non-commercial user. Non-commercial includes scientific research, education or conservation. Commercial is defined as follows: any use by, on behalf of, or to inform or assist the activities of a commercial entity (that operates ‘for profit’) or use by a non-profit for the purposes of revenue generation

    Type of use(*):

    Please specify which layer (ex. all layers, layers within a specific Region, layers within a Jurisdiction or a single ISRA): Purpose (*):

    Please provide a description of how you intend to use the ISRA GIS Dataset. The more details you provide, the faster we can respond to your request. We may require further clarification prior to providing access. (min. 100 characters – max 1,000 characters)



    File format request (*)

    By providing your personal data, you consent to its processing as described below. The IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group will use the information you provide on this form to send the documents you requested. You can change your mind at any time by writing to the ISRA Data Coordinator www.sharkrayareas.org/contact. All personal details provided will be treated with respect. For any information you can visit our Privacy Policy.
    Please read the User License Agreement and ISRA Layer Metadata Description

    This form uses Google reCaptcha to reduce spam. Privacy - Terms