Barents Sea catch and quota progress to December 2020

In December 2020 the Russian fleets were harvesting cod, haddock, halibut, crabs and other species, reports Megafishnet.com. 

Bottom trawl fishery

According to Fishnet.ru, bottom trawl fishery in the Barents Sea was conducted by up to 69 medium and 32 small vessels coming from Murmansk-led Northern Basin, along with 3 Kaliningrad trawlers. The Russian fishery still took place mostly in the Russian zone of the Barents Sea (57% of the December bottom trawl catch), where 17,300 tonnes of fish were caught (-6,500 tons), including cod – 10,400 tonnes, haddock – 6,100 tonnes, flounder – 500 tonnes and sea cat - 300 tonnes. Unlike November, December featured higher importance of the Norwegian EEZ, where the Russian fleet caught 6,700 tons (22% of the total catch), including cod (6,200 tons), sea cat (300 tons), haddock (100 tons) and flounder (100 tons). The remaining share (21%) was contributed by the Spitsbergen area (6,200 tonnes or +2,800 tons), where the Russian catches included 5,100 tonnes of cod, 600 tonnes of sea cat and 500 tonnes of catfish.

Since the beginning of the year the fishermen harvested 316,800 tonnes of cod and 90,8 thousand tonnes of haddock in the Barents Sea.

By the end of December, Russian quota remainder for cod, according to provisional estimates, amounted to 1.7%, haddock - 5.6%.

Dedicated black halibut fishery

Dedicated black halibut fishery in the Spitsbergen area was carried out by two vessels. In December 1,500 tonnes of fish were caught (-500 tonnes) with halibut accounting for 98%. From January to December 2020 12.2 thousand tonnes of black halibut were harvested in the Barents Sea out of the Russian quota of 12,225 tonnes, including 2,200 tonnes to be covered as by-catch and 750 tonnes for research fishery.

Longline fishery

Bottom fish longline fishery in the Barents Sea was conducted by 8 vessels from the Northern Basin and 1 vessel from St. Petersburg. Mainly, longlines were set in the Russian zone (95% of the catch during the period under analysis), and one vessel from St. Petersburg (5%) was operating until 22 December in the Norwegian EEZ. Just like in November, in December they altogether harvested 2,200 tonnes of fish, including cod (84%), sea cat (6%) and haddock (10%).

Red king crab

Red king crab trap fishery in Barents Sea Russian zone was continued by 2 vessels from the Northern Basin. Through the month altogether they harvested 19 tonnes of crabs. On 13 December 2020 Zvezda Rybaka trawler from Murmansk closed the red king fishery in the area. Since the beginning of the year by the end of December, Russian fleet harvested 10,909 tons of red king crab out of the TAC of 10,940 tonnes. In 2019 Russian red king crab catch in the Barents Sea was 9,910 tonnes.

Snow crab

Three vessels of the Far Eastern and one of the Northern Basin were targeting snow crab, and their total catch was recorded at 171 tonnes of opilio. On 8 December 2020 the fishery got closed with the total result of 13,242 tonnes (TAC 13,250 tonnes), while last year the fishery was finished on 24 November with the result of 9,821 tonnes (TAC 9,840 tonnes).

BARENTS SEA: Dynamics of Russian catches and quota progress January-December 2019-2020

Notes: 1. Russia’s halibut quota includes 2200 tonnes of halibut bycatch; 2. Russia’s deepwater redfish quota includes 2000 tonnes allocated as bycatch. 3. Source of catch data: Fishnet.ru

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