BARENTS SEA, the eastern portion of the northernmost Arctic ocean, framed by north Norway, Finland and Russia on the south, by Novaya Zemlya on the east, by Franz Josef Land on the north, and by Spitsbergen and Bear island on the west. The English pioneer merchant-seamen, Willoughby and Chancellor (1553), sailed along the Murman coast of Russian Lapland and reached Kolguyef Island. The Dutch sailor Willem Barendsz (Barents) in crossed this sea several times, discovered Spitsbergen, and died on the east coast of Novaya Zemlya while wintering there. As the Barents Sea lies between lat. 7o° and 80° N., the climate is very cold and only in the summer months and in the southern part of the sea can one sail without difficulty. Even in the height of summer the sea between Hope island (south-east of Spitsbergen) and Franz Josef Land is much encumbered with ice, which drifts southwards towards Bear island and westwards past South cape, Spitsbergen. The temperature of the air rarely goes far above 41° in summer, and in winter the cold is very se vere with temperatures ranging from 14° to below zero. The water temperatures are more moderate and, even in winter, remain above over considerable stretches of sea; this is true especially of the south side of the sea from North cape to the entrance into the White Sea, and here the water does not freeze, a fact which gives the Russian Murman coast special economic importance for Russia. Polyarnoe, on Kola fjord, is an ice-free harbour be cause the last remnants of the Gulf Stream bring to this coast salt and relatively warm water of Atlantic origin from the west coast of Norway. In the northern part, however, the water is mostly Polar, relatively fresh and very cold. This cold water reaches to the neighbourhood of Bear island and, when south winds bring relatively warm air to this region, extensive fogs are formed over this cold water.
Every year the importance of the Barents sea in the matter of fisheries is increasing. In the southern parts with their warmer water a number of marketable fishes are found on the sea floor. There are Russian fisheries in territorial waters on the coast but in the open sea the catches are made mostly by English, Scottish and German trawlers; and these work even in winter in spite of great difficulties due to storms, and the long darkness. The devel opment of the steam trawler industry in the Barents sea and in Icelandic waters is partly due to the diminished returns from the fishing of the North sea. When fishermen are going to the Barents sea they usually say that they are going to the White sea, but the actual White sea is reserved for Russian fisheries. The most im portant fish in the Barents sea are cod, haddock and plaice, also Norway haddock, and in 1925 the Barents sea yielded 5% of the total amount of these fish caught in the fisheries of north-west Europe. The average proceeds of a trawler's journey in 1925 gave 22,000kg. in the North sea, 45,0ookg. in the Iceland sea and 65,000kg. in the Barents sea. In view of their importance the fish eries of the Barents sea have been investigated scientifically along with survey of depths, bottom deposits, temperatures and cur rents and their biological relationships. A Norwegian (Nansen), Russians (Knipowitch and Breitfuss), and Germans (Mielck and Schulz) and others have led several expeditions, and there is a biological station at Polyarnoe. The chief port for journeys to the Barents sea is the Norwegian harbour of Vardo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--F. Nansen, The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, Bibliography.--F. Nansen, The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, scientific results, vol. iii. and iv. (59o2 to 1907) ; N. Knipowitch, "Hydrologic des europaischen Eismeeres" German in Annalen der Hydrographie (1905) ; B. Schulz and A. Wulff, Hydrograph. and planktolog. Forschungen in der Barents Sea, Deutsche Kommission fur Meeresforschung, Band iv. (Berlin, 1928).