Good outlook for Russia’s pollock season 2021 in the Bering Sea

The Russian fishery scientists have completed the forecast for the Bering sea pollock season starting in May later this year, reports Megafishnet.com.

According to VNIRO, the total allowable catch of pollock for the Russian fleets in the West Bering Sea zone for 2021 has been set at 415 thousand metric tons, in the Chukchi zone at 5 thousand tons, in the Karaginsk subzone at 22.5 thousand tons.

The pollock fishery in 2021 will be based on 2015-2016 year classes, common in the midwater, as well as the 2013-2014 classes concentrated on the shallow shelf. This year, as in the last few years, the mass penetration of pollock into the Navarinsky area will begin in late May-early June, and accordingly, early return migrations are expected.

According to the scientists, the recruitment of the Bering Sea pollock stock by the year classes 2018-2019 is at an above-average level.

Specialized pollock fishing in the West Bering Sea zone in the area west of 174 E remains prohibited.

Experts note that recently there has been a tendency for an increase in the abundance of the West Bering Sea pollock population. Over the past six years, the Russian fishermen caught about 400 thousand tons of Bering Sea pollock annually. The total annual catch of pollock in the Bering Sea during this period (in the Russian and American zones) averaged at 1.7 million tons.

Over the past two years, the average annual catch per large-capacity fleet effort has been at a high level. If earlier the maximum catch was at the beginning of autumn, then in the last 7 years, due to earlier migrations to the western part of the sea and back, the highest catch rates were from June to August.

In 2020, the Russian pollock harvest reached 381.7 thousand tons amounting to 97.9% of the TAC. It should be noted that the fishing situation in 2020, as in 2019, was one of the most favorable.