Recent migration routes of Norwegian spring spawning herring

The migration routes of Norwegian spring spawning herring have changed\nconsiderably during the last decades. In the 1950s and beginning of\nthe 1960s the stock spawned off the west coast of Norway in late\nwinter, were distributed in the feeding season in the Iceland-Jan\nMayen area, and wintered east of Iceland. In the mid 1960s a large\npart of the stock wintered and spawned of northern Norway and were\ndistributed in the northern part of the Norwegian sea during the\nfeeding season. The stock collapsed in the late 1960s, and during the\nrebuildning period the stock wintered in different fjords on\nthe Norwegian coast, spawned at Møre and were located in near coastal\nwaters of Norway in the feeding season. However, from 1988 when the\nstrong 1983 year class recruited to the spawning stock a new change in\nthe migration pattern was observed. At present the stock spawns at\nseveral locations along the Norwegian coast, including the traditional\nspawning grounds at Karmøy in south-western Norway where spawning was\nresumed in 1989. In the feeding season the herring is distributed\nover large areas in the Norwegian Sea. In late July and August the\nherring migrates eastwards, and in September enters the wintering\nareas in northern Norway.