Russian Federal Fisheries Agency approving TACs 2010
Under its order No. 874 dated from 30 September 2009 the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency has approved TACs 2010 for fish and non-finfish objects in the nation's Far East Basin, reports http://www.fishnet-russia.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/).
More specifically, for the year 2010 TACs have been set only for 15 fish objects. If compared with 2009, smelt and rudd have been excluded from the list of TAC regulated species for the year 2010. Skates and sculpins in all fishing areas in the Sea of Okhotsk have not been TAC regulated.
There is no TAC set for ocean perch in North-Okhotsk subarea. As for the Primorye subarea, in 2010 such objects as sea urchin (S. pallidus) and Echinarachnius parma, kelps, jellyfish and sea-squirt are not TAC regulated as compared to 2009. Kelps and sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus intermedius) have not been regulated in South Kurile area.
According to the order of the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency for 2010 the TACs for aquatic biological resources have been set at the volume of 2.8 millions of tonnes (excluding possible catch of salmon species), 215,000 tonnes up from the 2009 level.
Catch increase as compared to 2009 level will be contributed mainly by Russian pollock fishery in the North-Okhotsk subarea, where the TAC has grown by 100.4 tonnes.
Traditionally, the bulk of catches will be contributed by finfish species (90.4%), as the TACs for fish species have been increased by 344.5 thousands of tonnes.
TAC volumes by areas
Year | Bering Sea | East Kamchatka | North Kuriles | South Kuriles | Sea of Okhotsk | Sea of Japan | TOTAL |
2010, 1000 tonnes | 468.6 | 239.6 | 227.6 | 314.6 | 1423.0 | 160.6 | 2843.7 |
2009, 1000 tonnes | 451.3 | 189.8 | 210.2 | 355.2 | 1261.5 | 154.8 | 2628.6 |
2010 versus 2009, +/- 1000 tonnes | +17.3 | +49.8 | +17.4 | -40.6 | +161.5 | +5.8 | +215.1 |
It is worth noting, that only in South Kurile and East-Sakhalin subareas the TAC volumes have been decreased by 40,600 tonnes and 10,800 tonnes correspondingly.
The decrease in the South Kurile subarea has been due to exclusion of kelp from TAC regulated species (less 129.7 thousand of tonnes) while in the East Sakhalin it has been attributed to exclusion of sculpins, rudd, smelt from TAC regulated species as well as triangle tanner and sea cucumber (by 1400 and 1600 tonnes correspondingly).
TAC volume in West Bering area has been increased by 17,300 tonnes. Namely, the TACs for fish species have been increased by 13,900 tonnes (+2500 tonnes of herring, +6800 tonnes of cod, +2900 tonnes of Russian pollock).
The TAC of snow crab opilio has increased by nearly 1000 tonnes, the pink shrimp TAC has been rosen by 2700 tonnes.
In the East Kamchatka the TACs of fish objects have been increased by almost 50,000 tonnes completely thanks to the West Bering pollock population.
The increase of the Russian pollock TAC by 29,500 tonnes in South-Kurile area appeared to become reasonable because of real increase of pollock stocks. The saury TAC in the year 2010 has been also increased to 215,000 tonnes from the current 2009 year level of 150,000 tonnes.
TACs for aquatic biological resources in the Sea of Okhotsk have been set at the level of 1.4 millions of tonnes, up 160,000 tonnes from 2009 level, that all comes mainly from Russian pollock and herring stocks increase. More specifically, TAC for Russian pollock in the North-Okhotsk subarea has grown by 100.4 tonnes; TAC for herring has been set at 290,000 tonnes in 2010 in comparison with 226,000 tonnes in the year 2009; TAC for Gizhigin-Kamchatka herring in West Kamchatka subarea has increased by 15,000 tonnes.
TACs for cod have been increased by 6800 tonnes in West Bering subarea and by 9500 tonnes in the Kamchatka-Kurile subarea. Due to decrease of plaice stocks, TAC for this species in the West Kamchatka coast has been reduced by 7,200 tonnes in 2010 if compared to the 2009 level.
Total TACs for crab species in 2010 have decreased by 1500 tonnes while TACs for shrimps have increased by 4300 tonnes. However, taking into account crab stocks condition, the TAC for the following crab species have been increased:
-spiny king crab in Primorye subarea by 203 tonnes,
-golden king crab in North-Okhotsk subarea by 443 tonnes,
-snow king crab opilio in West Bering subarea by 974 tonnes and in Primorye subarea by 376 tonnes,
- snow crab bairdi in Kamchatka-Kurile subarea by 465 tonnes,
- triangle tanner crab in North-Okhotsk subarea by 290 tonnes.
As for shrimps, only TAC for pink shrimp have been increased by:
-2700 tonnes in West Bering subarea,
-710 tonnes in North-Okhotsk subarea,
-350 tonnes in Primorye subarea.
Despite the fact that for some reasons the annual TACs for squid have remained uncovered in the Sea of Japan year after year, the order of the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency has set the increase of 10,000 tonnes for this species.
In general, the pollock, herring, cod and other objects stock conditions in the Bering Sea and in the Sea of Okhotsk give the Far Eastern fishermen the opportunity to increase catches.
The population of Pacific salmon species has stayed at high levels for several years.
The catch of salmon species in the year 2009 amounted to more than 525,000 tonnes in the Far East basin. The largest runs of salmon were observed in the East Kamchatka coast where they exceeded 162,000 tonnes level, including 138,800 tonnes of pink salmon.
In the West Kamchatka coast and in the mainland coast of the Sea of Okhotsk the catches were at the level of 68,400 tonnes. More than 236,000 tonnes were harvested in East Sakhalin subarea, more than 30,000 tonnes were fished in South Kurile subarea.