The catches of flounders and sculpins in the fishery in the Peter the Great Bay with a seine and fixed nets are considered. Their value is compared with the value of catches by bottom trawl. Based on the accounting survey and data on the number of fishing efforts, the total catch per effort of flounders and sculpins in the Primorye subzone in 2022 as well as the total catch per effort of concrete species of these objects were determined. The revealed patterns can be used in the preparation of forecasts of the state of the studied species in the Primorye subzone.
Based on materials from bottom trawl surveys of 2009–2015, biomass and abundance of bottom fish of the Sea of Japan between the Povorotny and Zolotoy capes (Northern Primorye) were estimated. Information is provided on the population structure of common fish species in the study area. According to the long-term biomass data, scale-eye plaice Acanthopsetta nadeshnyi (20.43%) and Alaska pollock Gadus chalcogrammus (11.31%) dominate. The total average annual ichthyomass is 188 300 t or 5.4 t/km2; the number is 1482.6 million ind. or 42 300 ind./km2. The average specific biomass of fish varied over the years from 1.8 (in 2010) to 7.8 t/km2 (in 2014). In 2010, compared to 2000, the average specific biomass of fish has increased approximately twofold due to the appearance of a number of generations of common species of the bottom ichthyocene relative to the productive generations.
The specificity of the species composition of the ichthyofauna in the Russian and Korean waters in the Sea of Japan/East Sea (northwards from 35°17′N) is considered. The population and the proportion of species from the order of the perch-like fishes (Perciformes) steadily decline from the south towards the north; the proportion of the species from the order of the ray-finned fish (Scorpaeniformes) tends to rise. The northward latitudinal gradient in the family composition variability results in a decrease of their numbers along with a significant increase in the sculpins (Cottidae) and the picklebacks (Stichaeidae) in the species composition. In the southernmost region of the studied water area, the sublittoral species tend to prevail; in all of the others, the elittoral species are predominant. The four northern areas are characterized by a high similarity in the species composition (81.8%); this value is significantly lower (63.1%) in case of their comparison with the more southern areas. The similarity in the ichthyofauna composition between the southernmost area and the other studied water area comprises 44.1%.
