Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency approved TACs 2009

On 5 December 2008 Russia's Federal Fisheries approved TACs 2009 for fishery in the nation's inland waters, including inland sea waters, as well as in the territorial sea of the Russian Federation, on the continental shelf and in the nation's EEZ, in the Sea of Azov and in the Caspian Sea, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to the Agency.

Detailed tables with the TACs broken by species and fishing area are available at http://www.fishnet-russia.com/news/news-10163.html?show=all (the same tables will be also published in the December issue of the Russian Fish Report coming soon) and the sortable guide of the TACs is available at http://www.fishnet-russia.com/issues/docs/tacsENG/111.html .

Prior to the approval by the Agency the TACs collected consent from the State Expertise body setting the TACs at 3,153,000 metric tons, including 2,500,000 tonnes of finfish or more than 140,000 up on the previous year. The growth has been contributed by the Okhotsk pollock, the TAC 2009 of which was approved at ca.870,000 tonnes. At the same time, considerable reductions were approved for the TACs of pollock of the East and West Bering Sea populations.

Besides, the State Expertise did not listen to the scientists and decreased recommended TAC of herring in the West Bering Sea zone, Pacific cod in the North Kuriles, wachna cod in the Karaginsk subarea and in the West Kamchatka. The halibut TAC in the West Bering Sea zone was approved at 4300 tonnes, while the saury TAC in the South Kuriles was cut by 100,000 tonnes. The TACs for all the crab species were decreased by 1600 tonnes and the shrimp TACs were cut by 3100 tonnes on 2008. While for a number of species a large proportion of the TACs have been underexploited, the reduction of the TACs for other species has been painful for the fishermen. First of all, this is true for pink shrimp Pandalus borealis the TACs of which in the East and West Sakhalin were cut 2.8 times.

Note

Most of the fisheries in Murmansk-led basin are regulated by international agreements and are not covered by this order.