Fishery outlook in the North Basin in June 2007
In June 2007 in the Barents Sea the Russian fleets will continue targeting bottomfish with the bulk of the fishing efforts moving to the Russian waters and into the Grey zone. The fishery conditions will also keep fairly good in the waters of Spitsbergen, mostly in the waters of the Hope Island. The total harvest through June 2007 is expected to be on a par with the catch in May 2007.
The haddock fishery will be stepped up in the Russian EEZ.
In the first 20 days of June the fleets will continue actively harvesting blue whiting with the bycatch of herring in the southern part of the Loophole. Some of the vessels in the first half of the month will probably remain within the Faroese fishing zone where the blue whiting fishery should be carried out with mandatory insertion of selective grids. According to provisional information, the shipowners purchased such grids from various producers, but the bulk of them bought grids made by Kaliningrad-based Fishering Service. As per early June 2007 trial fishery with pelagic trawls equipped with grids was conducted only by several ships, including OAO ATF (plc). According to information coming from the grounds, use of grid gear can reduce the catch rates by 15% on the average.
In the second half of the month mackerel schools are forecasted in the northern part of the Faeroese fishing zone. Start of dedicated mackerel fishery in the south of the open waters of the Norwegian Sea will be possible in the closing ten days of June. The Russian mackerel quota has been set at the same level as last year - 7500 tonnes in the Faeroese fishing zone and 24,476 tonnes in the international waters of the Norwegian Sea. In the Irminger Sea more efficient fishery of ocean perch Sebastes mentella is possible at least in the first half of the month without a considerable change of positions. In the Northwest Atlantic and in the Central Eastern Atlantic the fishery conditions and fishing efforts are expected to remain at the same level as in May 2007.