Capelin

Fascinating facts about the Capelin

• Barents Sea capelin migrate during winter to the coast of northern Norway and the Kola Peninsula to spawn, and in summer head north-eastward to feed.
• Males reach about 20 cm (8 in) and females up to 25.2 cm (10 in); male post-spawning mortality is close to 100 %.
• Capelin can lay eggs in two very different worlds: deep water between 2 m and 100 m (7–328 ft) or on dry sand where they literally jump onto land. When beach water stays below 2 °C (36 °F) they choose the shore; if the beach warms above 12 °C (54 °F) they stay deep. Their ability to switch spawning modes shows a flexible strategy that maximises reproductive success under changing temperatures.
• A single capelin’s diet transforms as it grows: tiny juveniles gobble copepods, then larger fish shift to heftier euphausiids and amphipods. This size-linked switch keeps the fish in step with the zooplankton it needs for energy, and it places capelin in direct competition with polar cod for the same prey.
• In the summer of some years, millions of capelin roll onto the beaches of Quebec’s Gaspé peninsula, where locals scoop them up for food. The same schools fuel the Atlantic cod industry and provide the high-value masago roe prized in Japanese cuisine. Their seasonal abundance ties together remote Arctic ecosystems, commercial fisheries, and cultural traditions.

At a glance

About the Capelin

The capelin (Mallotus villosus) glides through the cold waters of the North Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic, its olive-coloured back fading to a silvery flank that flashes in the dim light of the ice edge. Males, modest at 20 cm, bear a translucent ridge along each side and a fleeting reddish iridescence on the belly when they are ready to spawn, while females grow to a full 25.2 cm. In summer they form dense swarms that graze on plankton, krill and other crustaceans, feeding in the pelagic zone before the great predators, whales, seals, cod, mackerel, squid and seabirds, descend upon them, especially during the frantic spawning migrations. Capelin are extraordinary for their dual reproductive strategies. When the ice recedes, some head for sandy beaches, leaping ashore in massive, synchronized jumps that leave thousands stranded on land, a spectacle shared only with a few other fish. Others seek the safety of sand and gravel bottoms at depths of 2 to 100 m, where they lay their eggs in water that stays between 5 °C and 10 °C, the temperature range that yields the highest hatching success. This flexibility lets capelin switch between semelparous and iteroparous modes depending on habitat, a physiological adaptability that underpins their high intrinsic growth rate and fuels the massive migrations that carry them from the Barents Sea and Icelandic coasts to the nutrient-rich waters between Iceland, Greenland and Jan Mayen.

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