Kamchatka anticipating successful salmon season
Russian fishery scientists forecast that this year Kamchatka will contribute 75 percent of the total salmon catch in the nation's Far Eastern basin.
The province’s fishermen are looking forward to a successful salmon season, such is forecasted by the fishery science, according to the Kamchatka government.
The total salmon catch in Kamchatka is estimated at 380 thousand metric tons against the total forecast for the Far Eastern basin of 512 thousand MT. Thus, approximately 75% of the catch will be contributed by Kamchatka. The main object is pink salmon as usual, 170 thousand tons will be harvested on the west and 140 thousand on the east coast, meaning that both coasts are working intensively. Currently, the local department of Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries Rosrybolovstvo has already started processing and issuing permits in accordance with the agreed schedule.
Preparations for the season are aimed at solving two priority tasks: filling spawning grounds and organizing effective fishing. The fishery management is based on the basin principle.
The Olyutorsky and Ust-Kamchatsky districts will be the first to start the salmon season, on June 5 and 8, respectively, and in the Karaginsky district the fishery will take off on June 15. On June 20, the salmon season will begin on the west coast from the Ozernaya River, in Sobolevsky and Ust-Bolsheretsky districts the fishery will start from July 11. In order to let the salmon producers run to the spawning grounds, the traditional system of running days is maintained, which assumes that non-working days for various districts will be established with a certain frequency during the year. The Pacific salmon volumes are set for 96 industrial fishing enterprises, on 98 sites for amateur fishing, and for 120 indigenous communities on 203 sites for traditional fishery.
Also, one of the important tasks in the upcoming season will be participation in the experiment to limit the transportation of caviar in air luggage during the most intensive fishing period.
"I hope that the forecasts will come true, and this will be an important help for us in terms of the profitability of our enterprises and the impact on the development of the regions. In connection with the implementation of an experiment to limit the transportation of caviar in passengers' personal luggage, we need to work out all the nuances related to the organization of this process very carefully now. This is also its coincidence with the high tourist season, the additional load on the terminal of Yelizovo International Airport," said Vladimir Solodov, Governor of the Kamchatka Territory.
In 2023 the Pacific salmon catch in Kamchatka is forecasted at 383 thousand tonnes, including 310 thousand MT of pink salmon, 28.3 thousand MT of chum salmon, 32.8 thousand MT of sockeye salmon, 7.4 thousand MT of coho salmon, 530 tonnes of chinook salmon and 10 tonnes of sima.