Murmansk fishermen happy with good outlook for cod, haddock and capelin stocks

At the 37th meeting of Mixed Russian-Norwegian Fisheries Commission in Bergen the sides have agreed to raise cod and haddock TACs 2009 and lift the moratorium on capelin fishery, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency.

More specifically, the sides have set the cod TAC 2009 at 525,000 metric tons, 95,000 tonnes up on 2008, and the haddock TAC 2009 at 194,000 tonnes, 47,000 tonnes up on 2008.

The agency's head Andrey Krainy said that it was an important development that the sides could diverge from setting the cod TAC on plus-minus 10% basis and they could thus give the Russian fishermen an additional large stock.

Another positive development approved at the meeting was the decision on resumption of capelin fishery after the five-year moratorium on its fishery. The capelin TAC 2009 has been set at 390,000 tonnes. At the same time, the mechanism of capelin quota distribution in such a situation remains to be made, because such cases have not been specified in the fishery regulations. Such mechanism shall be developed and approved by 20 December 2008, when the fishing companies shall have received fishing permits.