Overview of fisheries in Russia's Far East as per 2 August 2009
By the end of the week the number of the fishing vessels participating in the fishery amounted to 314, of which ca.40 large ships and 115 middle vessels, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (https://www.fishnet.ru/) with reference to NCMC and fishery sources in Vladivostok.
The daily harvest in the Basin decreased to 6000 tonnes, mostly due to weaker activity of the salmon harvest in the east of Kamchatka. In terms of abundance the strong runs of pink salmon to the rivers of East Sakhalin did not exceed the runs of pink salmon to the spawning rivers of East Kamchatka.
In the Bering Sea the dedicated pollock fishery was conducted by 32 vessels, including 10 middle class ships. The fishery situation continued to be far from satisfactory with the daily catches hardly reaching 1200 tonnes and daily catch rates amounting to 37-39 tonnes per large ship and 29-35 tonnes per middle vessel. From the beginning of the year in the West Bering Sea zone the expedition's pollock harvest amounted to 90,000 tonnes.
In Karaginsk subarea two Kamchatka-based crabbers were targeting snow crab opilio and another two ships also based in Kamchatka were hunting for snow crab bairdi. The fleet's harvest through the month amounted to 71 tonnes of snow crab opilio and 57 tonnes of snow crab Bairdi.
Two trawlers coming from Kamchatka were fishing halibut with bottom trawl in the West Bering Sea zone. Their total harvest through the month exceeded 230 tonnes, the average catch rates fluctuating at 3-4 tonnes per day.
Trawlers were harvesting bottomfish for human consumption in the West Bering Sea zone. Their catches were dominated by pollock (84.5%), cod was harvested as bycatch in the pollock fishery and accounted only for 9.7% out of the total harvest through the month (3700 tonnes). Besides, catches contained various flounder species (3.7%), Atka mackerel and other species. In the meantime, cod was the dominating species (84.6%) in longline operations. The average daily catches amounted to 6100 tonnes, the harvest through the month amounted to 3500 tonnes. Apart from cod, catches contained skates (7.1%), halibut (5.7%), grenadier (2.3%) and other species.
In the Karaginsk subarea cod catches in the trawl operation amounted to 30.1% of the harvest of all the species, though cod was also harvested as bycatch in the fishery of pollock, which share amounted to 64.1% of the harvest. As for longline operations, two ships were hunting on the grounds, and the bulk of their harvest was made by cod (95.2%). Along with cod, the catches also contained only white halibut. The average daily catches reached 9 tonnes.
In the Sea of Okhotsk at the west coast of Kamchatka catches were dominated by pollock (930 tonnes), the share of which amounted to 38.8% of the total harvest. Catches of wachna cod and flounder amounted to 700 and 630 tonnes correspondingly accounting for 29% and 26% of the harvest. Cod was harvested as bycatch which did not exceed 5%.
The halibut fishery in the Sea of Okhotsk was conducted by two bottomnetters and a group of longliners. The bottomnet halibut harvest through the month amounted to ca.180 tonnes. The share of halibuts did not exceed 50% of the longline harvest.
The group of vessels operating in the North Okhotsk subarea was targeting crabs and whelks. Snow crab opilio was harvested by 13 vessels. Through the week they harvested 132 tonnes of crabs. The harvest since the beginning of the snow crab opilio fishery in the North Okhotsk subarea amounted to ca.10,000 tonnes. In the territorial waters in the north of the Sea of Okhotsk eleven crabbers were hunting for red king crab with the group's weekly harvest amounting to 35 tonnes. The same catch volume was observed on the whelks grounds of the Sea of Okhotsk.
Provisional figures for catches in the most efficient areas of the Russian Far East according to NCMC National Centre for Fishery Monitoring and Communication| Species | West Bering Sea zone | East Kamchatka zone | Sea of Okhotsk | North Kuriles | Total in Russia’s Far East | |||||
| Harvest, metric tons | % | Harvest, metric tons | % | Harvest, metric tons | % | Harvest, metric tons | % | Harvest, metric tons | % | |
| Pollock | 9480 | 82.2 | 822 | 59.3 | 1154 | 24.7 | 2090 | 44 | 13689 | 54.2 |
| Cod | 854 | 7.4 | 8 | 0.58 | 175 | 3.76 | 44 | 0.9 | 1451 | 5.7 |
| Flounder | 121 | 1.05 | 47 | 3.36 | 640 | 13.7 | 93 | 1.9 | 1118 | 4.4 |
| Wachna cod | 706 | 15.1 | 851 | 3.4 | ||||||
| Sculpins | 5 | 0.39 | 32 | 0.68 | 3 | 0.1 | 90 | 0.4 | ||
| Halibut | 126 | 1.09 | 1 | 0.05 | 193 | 4.14 | 10 | 0.2 | 406 | 1.6 |
| Atka mackerel | 500 | 36 | 327 | 6.8 | 1008 | 4.0 | ||||
| Ocean perch | 1 | 0.01 | 12 | 0.3 | 18 | 0.1 | ||||
| Saury | 738 | 2.9 | ||||||||
| Herring | 32 | 0.28 | 32 | 0.1 | ||||||
| Skates | 232 | 2.01 | 4 | 0.3 | 17 | 0.37 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 0.2 |
| Grenadier | 674 | 5.85 | 488 | 10 | 1066 | 4.2 | ||||
| Salmons | 1627 | 34.8 | 109 | 2.3 | 2275 | 9.0 | ||||
| Red king crab | 1 | 0.01 | 36 | 0.1 | ||||||
| Blue king crab | 3 | 0.03 | 41 | 0.2 | ||||||
| Golden king crab | 12 | 0.2 | 28 | 0.1 | ||||||
| Tanner crab bairdi | 1 | 0.01 | 36 | 0.1 | ||||||
| Snow crab opilio | 9 | 0.08 | 142 | 0.6 | ||||||
| Triangle tanner crab | 69 | 1.49 | 69 | 0.3 | ||||||
| Sea urchins | 85 | 0.3 | ||||||||
| Sea scallops | 31 | 0.6 | 111 | 0.4 | ||||||
| Sea cucumber | 30 | 0.64 | 30 | 0.1 | ||||||
| Whelks | 2 | 0.05 | 36 | 0.1 | ||||||
| Squid | 1566 | 33 | 1567 | 6.2 | ||||||
| TOTAL | 11536 | 100 | 1386 | 100 | 4670 | 100 | 4785 | 100 | 25275 | |
The fleet's total harvest through the week amounted to more than 25,000 tonnes. Pollock remained the dominating species with a share of 54.2% out of the total harvest. As compared to the previous week the harvest of bottomfish for human consumption decreased, while the harvest of halibut went up. The catch of Atka mackerel and grenadier amounted to more than 1000 tonnes through the week. The harvest of squid went down by 200 tonnes.