Outlook for fisheries in the Russian Far East in 2nd quarter 2011

In mid-March 2011 scientists from Vladivostok-based TINRO-centre research institute announced their 2nd quarter forecast on water and weather conditions in the seas of the Russian Far East Fisheries Basin, potential catches and distribution of fish stocks by zones and subareas both for the territorial sea and for the Russian EEZ, reports www.megafishnet.com.

Closure of the Okhotsk pollock season in April will be the main feature of the second quarter of the current year 2011. At the same time, the pollock fishery will be resumed in the Bering Sea. In the Sea of Okhotsk the pollock season will continue in the waters of East Sakhalin. The salmon season will also take off in the second quarter of the year. In the middle of the quarter the fleets will start large scale inshore fishery. Probably, the fleets will be able to harvest squids in the waters of the North Kuriles, said the forecasters.

In the second quarter of 2011 the Basin's scientists recommend the fishermen to slightly raise catches of finfish and other aquatic species on last year to 583,800 tonnes. Pollock will remain the dominating species accounting for 40.8% of the forecasted harvest. The total recommended pollock catches have been announced at 237,000 tonnes for the second quarter.

As the pollock season at the west coast of Kamchatka gets closed, a part of the fleet will probably switch to herring fishery, catches of which are forecasted at 54,600 tonnes for April-June 2011.

Pollock as the main species will be followed by flounder (ca.40,000 tonnes), Atka mackerel (34,500 tonnes), cod (31,000 tonnes), sculpins (ca.14,000 tonnes) and wachna cod (9200 tonnes).

In the second quarter of 2011 the Russian fleets are expected to harvest 13,000 tonnes of salmons.

The grenadier catch is recommended at 14,500 tonnes.

Some 12,000 tonnes of capelin are recommended for commercial fishery.

Along with the above, the fishermen are expected to harvest ca.56,000 tonnes of seaweed, mostly laminaria.

Besides, the scientists forecast catches of ca.12,000 tonnes of crabs and nearly twice as much, namely 23,200 tonnes, of squid.

At the same time, catch declines were recommended for halibuts (6600 tonnes namely), anchovies (6000 tonnes), sea urchins (3000 tonnes), shrimps (2700 tonnes) and some other species.

The water and weather conditions are expected to be in keeping with the multiannual average results in all the fishing areas, except for the Sea of Japan where spring will be colder and longer than last year. In the Bering Sea the waters of Navarin area and Anadyr Bay will stay covered with ice up to mid-May 2011. In the Sea of Okhotsk the Sakhalin Bay will be the last one to free from ice only in the second half of July 2011.

In general, the water and weather conditions in the second quarter of 2011 will enable the fishermen to conduct operations on the grounds without any big hindrances.

January-February 2011

The scientists have also analyzed truthfulness of the annual forecast in the first couple of months of the current year 2011 when the nation's fishermen harvested 535,000 tonnes of fish species, including 446,000 tonnes of pollock (-37,000 tonnes on last year).

The herring fishery was a success in the current year with the fishing efforts exceeding the last year in number. As a result, the harvest rose to 50,000 tonnes of roe herring, 38,000 tonnes up on last year.

The crab fishery was progressing actively and the fleets harvest ca.3400 tonnes of crabs, twice up on last year.