Russian fisheries in North Atlantic and Central Eastern Atlantic as per 2nd week of February 2010

The total harvest of Russian vessels in the North Atlantic and Central Eastern Atlantic from 8 to 15 February 2010 grew to ca.263,000 tonnes, thus displaying an increase of 2600 tonnes on the result of the first week of February 2010, fishery sources in Murmansk told http://www.megafishnet.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/), with reference to provisional figures of National Centre for Fisheries Monitoring and Communication.

Share of fish harvested by vessels coming from Kaliningrad-led West Fisheries Basin amounted to 19%. The harvest jumped mostly thanks to larger capelin catches in the Barents Sea. The Russian vessels conducted large scale fishing in three main areas, namely in the Barents Sea and the adjacent grounds of the Norwegian Sea (bottomfish operations and capelin fishery), the Norwegian Sea (herring fishery of Murmansk-based vessels at the shores of Norway and blue whiting fishery of Kaliningrad-based trawlers in the Faroese fishing zone) and the Central Eastern Atlantic (pelagic fisheries in the Mauritanian waters). In the Barents Sea the fishermen continued active capelin fishery. In the Norwegian Sea the blue whiting fishery in the south of the Faroese fishing zone and krill fishery in the waters of the South Orkney Islands were conducted on a limited scale. The first three places in terms of catch volumes were again taken by the Barents Sea capelin, the total harvest of which amounted to 10,400 tonnes (+3300 tonnes) through the week, cod (4815 tonnes) and haddock (2762 tonnes). The share of capelin in the total harvest rose to 40%, while cod and haddock shares amounted to 18% each. The harvest of spring-spawning herring in the Norwegian Sea remained at 2100 tonnes (8%).

In the Barents Sea the fleet targeting capelin exceeded 20 ships. In the first half of the second week of February 2010 the fishery conditions were characterized by instability. The main fishing area moved to the south and southwest where in the end of the wintering season capelin stocks began actively dividing to large maturing and comparably small immature fish. By mid-February 2010 the conditions grew favourable for operations not only in the Russian zone, but in the Grey Zone (under joint jurisdiction of Russia and Norway) as well. Thanks to larger fishing efforts (in case of delays with entry to the fishing grounds Murmansk authorities promised to take respective measures against the shipowners) the total harvest of capelin through the week under analysis jumped to 10,400 tonnes (+3300 tonnes). The share of fish harvested by Kaliningrad-based vessels amounted to 24%. The capelin harvest from the fishery start approached 19,000 tonnes (ca.17%).

The first capelin catch landed in Murmansk was delivered on 13 February 2010 by Lazurnyi seiner trawler owned by OOO Iceberg-Nord (ltd). The ship namely landed 800 tonnes of frozen capelin and 400 tonnes of chilled capelin from the latest catch. The seiner trawler built in Norway in 1990 and refurbished in 2004 was purchased from a Faroese shipowner. The landing capacity of her two pumps is 60 tonnes of capelin per hour.

Chilled capelin was sold at RUR16.00-17.50 per kilo in the social retail chain of Murmansk under the national program of Cheap Fish. Murmansk Fish Combine was selling it to retailers at RUR13.00 per kilo on the average. Another capelin landing (345 tonnes of frozen capelin namely) in the port of Murmansk was expected on 16 February 2010 by STM Or owned by OOO Kuzema (ltd). Murmansk Fish Combine was ready to launch a new coldstore terminal for concurrent storage of up to 2000 tonnes of seafood at the premises of 5000 cubic meters.

The cod fishery was conducted by more than 45 vessels mostly operating in the Norwegian EEZ along the northwest coast of Norway where they were actively targeting large roe cod, haddock and saithe. The total harvest of bottomfish species through the week did not change much and amounted to 4800, 2800 and 500 tonnes correspondingly. In the Norwegian EEZ the fishermen harvested ca.40% of large cod, 11% of haddock and all the saithe. The remaining fish was harvested in the waters of Spitsbergen and in the Russian EEZ.

In the Norwegian Sea the fishery of spring-sprawning herring was continued only by the Murmansk-based vessels. The harvest through the week remained at 2100 tonnes. One or two Kaliningrad trawlers were targeting blue whiting in the south part of the Faroese fishing zone. The blue whiting harvest through the week amounted to 850 tonnes.

In the Central Eastern Atlantic pelagic fisheries were conducted in the Mauritanian waters. The total Russian harvest through the week amounted to ca.3400 tonnes. The landings were dominated by horse mackerel (60%). The shares of the species remained practically unchanged with horse mackerel accounting for 64%, mackerel - 12% and sardinella - 12%. The bycatch contained mostly sardine and anchovy (7-8% each). One trawler based in Murmansk-led North Fisheries Basin continued harvesting krill in the waters of the South Orkney Islands. The harvest through the week amounted to 710 tonnes, the total catch since the beginning of the year amounted to ca.3000 tonnes.

More active capelin fishery in the Barents Sea actually made the main difference in the catch results as compared to the second week of February 2009. More specifically, the capelin harvest on 8-15 February 2010 amounted to 10,400 tonnes, 5100 tonnes up on the corresponding result of 2008.

Provisional catch figures for North Atlantic and Central Eastern Atlantic as per 15 February 2010