Fishery overview in Russia's West Basin in January-March 2007

In January-March 2007 the fleet of Kaliningrad-led West Fisheries Basin spent 613 days at sea all together, according to Mayak Baltiki.

The harvest amounted to 44,800 tonnes, 10,600 tonnes down on the corresponding result 2006. The average catch amounted to 73.5 tonnes per day. The reason behind the catch fall was a loss of 160 fishing days, which covered the above mentioned catch fall taking into account the daily catch rates. Due to a number of managerial reasons the Moroccan subarea was not used sufficiently enough, there the fleet exploitation dropped by 190 days at sea, which did not help boost the total catch. The fleet of Murmansk-led North Basin also decreased the harvest as compared to last year by 30%.

The main species targeted by Kaliningrad-based fleet in the first quarter 2007 were blue whiting (32,111 tonnes), mackerel (6742 tonnes), herring (3472 tonnes), sardines (1640 tonnes), skipjack tuna (228 tonnes), horse mackerel (216 tonnes), cod (195 tonnes), haddock (97 tonnes), sardinella (94 tonnes), sea cat (79 tonnes), yellowfin tuna (78 tonnes), dentex (33 tonnes), saithe (17 tonnes), halibut (16 tonnes), bigeye tuna (15 tonnes) and other species (13 tonnes).

The above catch was contributed by the following fishing areas:

• Reykjanes (Northeast Atlantic) - catch of 26,577 tonnes, 87 tonnes per day;
• Morocco (Central Eastern Atlantic) - catch of 8732 tonnes, 82 tonnes per day;
• Faroe Islands (Northeast Atlantic) - catch of 5545 tonnes, 70 tonnes per day;
• Norway cont. (Northeast Atlantic) - catch of 3804 tonnes, 42 tonnes per day;
• Equatorial (Central Eastern Atlantic) - catch of 290 tonnes, 16 tonnes per day.

The best harvesters in the first quarter 2007 were OOO Maritime Star (ltd) with the total catch of 18,900 tonnes, JSC ZAO Westrybflot - 9300 tonnes, JSC ZAO Rybflot-FOR - 7900 tonnes, OAO Atlantrybflot (plc) - 5000 tonnes.

Companies' catches in January-March 2007 are given in the table as below.

In the first quarter 2007 the above mentioned catch was contributed by the following Kaliningrad-based vessels:

Owner JSC ZAO Westrybflot

• BATM K-1988 Armenak Babayev, catch - 4637 tonnes, captain Molokoyedov Sergey Nikolayevich;
• BATM K-1990 Staryi Arbat, catch - 4570, captain Scherbak Oleg Sergeyevich.

Owner OOO Maritime Star (ltd)

• BATM K-1531 Marshal Vassiljevsky, catch - 4021, captain Kopjov Viktor Sergeyevich;
• BATM K-1601 Marshal Krylov, catch - 2303, captain Mazurov Andrey Nikolayevich;
• BATM K-1652 Kapitan Sukhondyaevsky, catch - 2565, captain Nazarevsky Aleksey Pavlovich;
• RTMK-S K-1749 Kurshskaya Kosa, catch - 2506, captain Zonin Nikolay Alekseyevich;
• RTMK-S K-1777 Porechje, catch - 3027, captain Mashegirov Vladimir Leonidovich;
• RTMK-S K-2147 Lira, catch - 2899, captain Yukho Aleksandr Iosifovich;
• RTMK-S K-2157 Kapitan Butrimov, catch - 552, captain Rzayev Oleg Aliyevich;
• RTMS K-2086 Tsefey, catch - 1843, captain Nikiforov Vyacheslav Leonidovich.

Owner JSC ZAO RPK FOR

• BATM K-2060 Bratya Stoyanovy, catch - 2847, captain Reshedko Igor Anatoljevich;
• BATM K-2073 Kapitan Edemsky, catch - 2791, captain Pominchuk Oleg Vasiljevich.

Owner JSC ZAO Rybflot-FOR

• BATM K-1789 P.Chanchibadze, catch - 2021, captain Duvakin Vladimir Fedorovich;
• BATM K-1864 V.Dzhaparidze, catch - 2536, captain Khromov Aleksandr Anatoljevich;
• BATM K-1965 P.Batov, catch - 2639, captain Tsygankov Viktor Ivanovich;
• BATM K-1966 Nivenskoye, catch - 2647, captain Maksimov Valentin Ivanovich.

Thus, the largest catches in the period under analysis were contributed by K-1990 Staryi Arbat, K-1988 Armenak Babayev and K-1531 Marshal Vasilevsky out of BATM large trawlers and K-1749 Kurshskaya Kosa, K-2147 Lira and K-1777 Porechje out of RTMK-S supertrawlers.

Take-up of offshore quotas amounted to a mere 9.4% because the fleets were mostly operating in the areas non-regulated by quotas.

In the inshore waters take-up of quotas amounted to 19% in the Baltic Sea, 36% in the Kaliningrad Bay and 11% in the Curonian Bay.