Okhotsk APO season 2012 taking off with strong results

Main Alaska pollock season has taken off in the Sea of Okhotsk as of 1 January 2012 and as per 17 January 2012 the reported catch rates were higher than last year, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/.

More specifically, Kamchatka fishermen harvested more than 13,000 MT of APO, 3,000 MT up on the same period last year. The total APO catch in the Sea of Okhotsk as per 17 January 2012 exceeded 42,000 MT.

In the middle of the first month of 2012 a group of 33 Kamchatka-based trawlers was targeting the species in the Sea of Okhotsk with the catch rates reported at 1,300 MT per day.

In the year 2012 seventy-five Kamchatka-based fishing companies have received APO capture quotas at the total volume of nearly 300,000 MT. The grand total APO quotas in the Russian Far East Basin amount to 1.7 million MT.

The Okhotsk APO season plays an important role for the nation's fishing sector with the species contributing ca. 1.6 million MT or 38% to the total harvest of 4.2 million MT in 2011. In its turn, the North Okhotsk pollock contributed 900,000 MT (22%) to the Russian harvest.