Bering wolffish COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 6

• Previous page
• Table of contents
• Next page

Distribution

• Global Range
• Canadian Range

Global Range

The Bering wolffish has a confirmed distribution from Hokkaido and Shikotan Island to the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwestern Pacific (Barsukov, 1959), but the distribution of this species in the northeastern Pacific and Arctic Oceans is little known. Specimens have been recorded in Norton Sound, as well as in the Pribolof and Commander Islands in Alaskan waters (Barsukov, 1959). The only confirmed specimens in Canadian waters are from Bathurst Inlet in the western Canadian Arctic (Fig. 1; Houston and McAllister, 1990). Fruge and Wiswar (1991) have recorded the first specimens of Bering wolffish from the Camden Bay area in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea, helping fill in what was a 2700 km gap in the known distribution of the species (from Bathurst Inlet in the western Canadian Arctic to Norton Bay in Western Alaska).

Canadian Range

Only three specimens of Bering Wolffish have been recorded in Canadian waters -- all in Bathurst Inlet. Specimens have been recorded in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea, the Bering Sea, and the Commander and Pribolof Islands. This appears to be the southeastern limit to the range of the species. The species is not present along the Pacific coast of North America.

Figure 1: General Distribution of North American Bering Wolffish Populations

Canadian records indicated with arrows.