Fishery outlook for September 2007 in North Atlantic

In the Barents Sea Russia's bottomfish operations will be conducted under non-stable fishery conditions caused by seasonal weakness of concentrations. Landings of cod and haddock are forecasted at 10-15% down on August. The best fishery conditions are expected in the northwest part of the sea. Active trap fishery of red king crab in the Russian EEZ is probable not earlier than in the closing five days of September as the fishermen will wait for larger meat content in order to satisfy the market demand. In the Norwegian Sea the bulk of the fleet will continue harvesting herring in the Norwegian EEZ and on the adjacent grounds of the enclave. Some of the vessels will target blue whiting in the open part of the sea focusing on the largest possible bycatch of ocean perch at the 71st-72nd degrees North (the bycatch of ocean perch S.mentella should not exceed 5%). According to the decision made at the June's session of NEAFC, in the period from 1 September to 15 November direct (dedicated) fishery of ocean perch in the international waters of the Norwegian Sea is allowed for all the NEAFC members with the harvest to total 15,500 tonnes including bycatches in other fisheries, blue whiting and herring for instance. In the Irminger Sea, on the NAFO grounds and in the zone of Greenland) the fishery of ocean perch Sebastes mentella is possible on a limited scale until the shipowners exhaust their quotas. In the Northwest Atlantic separate vessels will continue harvesting Greenland halibut out of the quota of 1275 tonnes in the West Greenland sector. In the area of the Flemish Cap and the Newfoundland Bank the halibut quota will be practically completely covered in the course of the month and the fleet may switch to ocean perch operations. On the Flemish Cap Bank the fleets will harvest the species within the international quota of 5000 tonnes under the Olympic system and on the Newfoundland Bank Russia's quota in the subarea 3 O amounts to 6500 tonnes. On the Flemish Cap the Russian fleet may also target shrimp with the fishery to be regulated by the number of days spent at sea by each particular ship. In the subarea 3 M the Russian fleets are allowed to fish within 2100 days per ship, but in the recent years these possibilities have been non-realized.

In the Central Eastern Atlantic a group of 4-6 large trawlers will harvest pelagic species dominated by sardinella.