Russia’s Norwegian Sea catch and quota progress in February 2021

In February 2021 Russian fleets continued targeting herring, Northern blue whiting and black halibut in the Norwegian Sea, reports Megafishnet.com.

According to Fishnet.ru, through to 5 February the herring fishery in the Norwegian Sea was conducted by RTIP Lazurnyi owned by OOO Iceberg-Nord from Murmansk. The fishery conditions were unstable with the vessel’s total catch through the month amounted to 201 tonnes of herring. From the beginning of the year the harvest totalled 972 tonnes out of the Russian quota in the Norwegian EEZ and in the NEAFC area amounting to 83,500 tonnes. For comparison, last year the respective result was 529 tonnes of herring.

Faroese fishing zone

BATMm Lazurnyi owned by Kaliningrad-based ZAO Westrybflot and BMRTS Kapitan Nazin owned by Murmansk Trawl Fleet were targeting blue whiting in the Faroese fishing zone. Later on they moved to the west off the British Isles. Through the first days of February they harvested 2,200 tonnes of blue whiting. Northern blue whiting catch through the first two months of the year 2021 totaled 6,500 tonnes out of 82,000 tonnes of the Russian blue whiting quota in the area. In 2020 the respective result by the same day of the year was 5,800 tonnes.

Starting from 10 February most of the Russian large trawlers was staying in the waters to the west of the British Isles, where they were anticipating the start of the blue whiting spawning season. The spotting operations were hampered by frequent storms. The first catches were reported on 16-17 February. Russia’s fishing efforts by the end of the month totaled 13 large trawlers (seven from Kaliningrad and six from Murmansk). The fishery conditions were generally favourable with the total catch in the NEAFC Regulatory area from the year start recorded at 23,200 tonnes (33.7% of Russia’s blue whiting quota in the NEAFC waters). Last year the fishery took off earlier – on 12 February – and by the end of the month the catch amounted to 29,200 tonnes of blue whiting.

NORWEGIAN SEA: Dynamics of Russian catch and quota progress in January-February 2020-2021

Source of catch data: Fishnet.ru

For copyright please contact Vera Aldokhina at vera@megafishnet.com.