Russian fisheries in North Atlantic and Central Eastern Atlantic in March 2008

According to provisional figures, in March 2008 the total harvest of Russian vessels in the North Atlantic and Central Eastern Atlantic amounted to ca.87,000 tonnes, thus displaying an increase by 22,200 tonnes on the result of the previous month. Kaliningrad-based fleets contributed less than 20% to Russia's total harvest in the area, fishery sources in Murmansk, with reference to provisional figures as per early April 2008, told www.fishnet-russia.com (https://www.fishnet.ru/).

Thanks to more stable weather conditions in the Barents Sea the Russian fishermen considerably increased their catches of cod, haddock and saithe, by 1800, 2600 and 1500 tonnes correspondingly. Due to more active operations of the Russian fleets in the international waters of the Porcupine Bank the nation's harvest of blue whiting exceeded 47,000 metric tons, thus growing by 24,000 tonnes on the previous month.

In the Central Eastern Atlantic the fishery conditions and the harvest volume remained unchanged. The fishing fleet operated in three main areas: in the Barents Sea and in the Grey Zone of the Norwegian Sea targeting bottomfish species, in the international waters of the Porcupine targeting blue whiting and in the Central Eastern Atlantic hunting for horse mackerel and mackerel.

In the Barents Sea the bottom fishery was conducted by up to 80 vessels, of which 3 ships came from Kaliningrad-led West Basin. The fishery conditions were reported as fairly stable, therefore thanks to more favourable weather the Russian landings through March 2008 rose by 1800 tonnes to 16,500 tonnes of cod, by 2600 tonnes to 6400 tonnes of haddock and by 1500 tonnes to 3000 tonnes of saithe. Taking into account the bycatch, the total harvest of bottomfish species through the month amounted to 27,700 tonnes, thus displaying an increase by 6600 tonnes on the previous month. The bulk of the fleet was located in the northern part of the Norwegian zone therefore 85% of cod, 85% of haddock and 100% of saithe were harvested in the Norwegian EEZ.

The experimental capelin fishery was suspended by the start of the closing ten days of March 2008. The total harvest of capelin for research and scientific purposes through February-March 2008 amounted to 5000 tonnes.

International waters of Porcupine

To the west of the British Isles the Russian expedition fleet of up to 20 large trawlers was harvesting blue whiting. As the weather conditions grew better, the fishery conditions at the depths of 400-600 meters on the grounds in between 55-56 degrees North got stabilized thus enabling the fleet to harvest more than 47,000 tonnes of large roe and spawning blue whiting (plus 24,000 tonnes on February 2008). The contribution of the vessels based in Kaliningrad-led West Fisheries Basin amounted to ca.30%. By the end of March 2008 the stock's abundant spawning finished and some of the vessels started moving to more northern grounds.

In the Central Eastern Atlantic (zones of Mauritania and Western Sahara) the landing of pelagic species in March 2008 decreased by 1800 tonnes to 7300 tonnes as compared to February 2008 mostly due to worse fishery conditions while the contribution of Kaliningrad-based fleets amounted to less than 10%. The harvest was dominated by horse mackerel (ca.50%) and mackerel (35% of the area's total harvest).

Provisional catch figures for the Russian Far East Basin in March 2008