Salmon season in Sakhalin taking off

On Sunday, June 16, the North Kurile fishermen were the first in the Sakhalin region to start the new salmon season 2019.

The fishermen are allowed to harvest 2 thousand metric tons of pink salmon in this fishing area, as well as 1.7 thousand tonnes of chum salmon and 1.3 thousand tonnes of sockeye salmon. Local companies also plan to harvest 400 tonnes of coho.

Almost all the salmon harvested here passes through the Kuril Straits to the rivers of the neighboring Kamchatka Peninsula. Therefore, the fishery management committee has conventionally introduced restrictions for the fishing season 2019, so that the bulk of the running stock could reach natural spawning grounds on the coast off the north of the Sea of Okhotsk. In particular, from July 15 to August 15, the North Kurile fishermen are prohibited to harvest sockeye with fixed seines near the island of Shumshu. At the same time, the chinook fishery in the North Kurile and Kamchatka-Kurile zones has been closed several years running, because the scientists say that the stock has been depressed so far.

The salmon season will end in the North Kuriles on August 31. However, experts think that the timing can be adjusted depending on the fishing activity and actual abundance of salmon runs to the area. Last year the total catch of salmons here exceeded 3.9 thousand tonnes.