Fifty years of herring migrations in the Norwegian Sea

The distribution of Norwegian spring-spawning herring is characterized by extensive drift-migration of larvae and fry into the Barents Sea and by substantial feeding and spawning migrations of the adults in the Northeast Atlantic and along the coast of Norway. During the last 50 years, the stock has undergone dramatic changes in numbers and migration. It collapsed in the late 1960s and has taken 30 years to rebuild. The pre- and post-collapse migration patterns are different, and three major migratory regimes can be distinguished during the last 50 years.