Overview of Russia's fisheries in the seas of nation's Far East Basin in eight months of 2010

Catches of Alaska pollock, cod, Atka mackerel, halibut, sculpins, ocean perch and skates showed positive trends as compared to the respective results for the same period of last year.

More specifically, the Basin's pollock harvest accounted for 75.1% of the allowable catch, inshore inclusive. The TACs of particular fishing zone were covered as follows:

• West Bering Sea zone - 51.2% (despite non-stable fishery situation on the grounds);
• East Kamchatka zone - 57.2%;
• North Kuriles - 60.5%;
• South Kuriles - 43.6%;
• Sea of Okhotsk - 86.8%;
• Sea of Japan - 37.2%.

The cod harvest in January-August 2010 amounted to 52,400 tonnes, 17,000 tonnes up on the same period of 2009. The Atka mackerel catch in the waters of the North Kuriles and Petropavlovsk-Komandor subarea exceeded the last year result by more than 7000 tonnes. The halibut catch in the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk amounted to 11,000 tonnes versus 8700 tonnes last year.

In the meantime, noticeable catch declines on last year were recorded for flounder, the harvest of which in the Kamchatka-Kurile subarea fell by 7700 tonnes. The wachna cod catch in the same subarea went down by 8300 tonnes, while in the East Sakhalin subarea the harvest of the species grew by 4000 tonnes. The grenadier harvest substantially decreased in the waters of the North Kuriles, namely by 7000 tonnes on last year. The saury season had a weak start in the South Kuriles mostly due to smaller fishing efforts on the grounds.

The harvest of other than finfish aquatic species in the first eight months of the current year 2010 showed a slight increase on last year. At the expense of deepwater fishery of red king crab in Primorye, where catches exceeded the last year results by 1900 tonnes, the harvest of all crab species in January-August 2010 rose by 2200 tonnes. The same situation was also observed for shrimps in the Sea of Japan, where catches increased by nearly 1000 tonnes on last year with the catch volumes in the Sea of Okhotsk staying on a par with the last year figures. The squid fishery in the Russian Far East also showed positive results with the squid catches rising by 1300 tonnes on last year. The results on the whelks grounds were in keeping with last year, while those of sea urchins, sea scallops and cucumber were lagging behind.

In January-August 2010 the Bering Sea, East Kamchatka zone and Kurile waters contributed 30.2% to the the Basin's total harvest. The harvest in the Sea of Okhotsk accounted for 66.2%, while the contribution of the Sea of Japan amounted to 2.4%. For comparison, last year the shares of the above mentioned areas were as follows: 34.1%, 63.2% and 1.7%.