Barents Sea cod biomass to sustain 30% rise of TAC

The Barents Sea cod biomass has exceeded 3 million metric tons and the cod TAC 2010-2011 can be increased by another 30% accordingly, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to head of Morskaya Informatika research and production company as quoted by B-Port.

Already in 2009, by mutual consent, Russia and Norway can increase the cod TAC by 10%, the initiative having been supported by ICES.

The method of forecasts developed by Morskaya Informatika was officially approved by ICES in 2008. However, the interests of the Russian side at the meeting of Mixed Russian-Norwegian Fisheries Commission are traditionally represented by PINRO fishery research institute, but due to some juridical problems neither PINRO nor VNIRO (another research institute) can send their ships to the sea to conduct trawl surveys and obtain up-to-date information on cod abundance. Therefore, at the next session of the Commission PINRO scientists will rely on the results of mathematical modeling producing figures far from real.