Poor abundance of Alaska pollock in the Sea of Japan

Poor abundance of Alaska pollock stocks in the Sea of Japan is a result of its gradual decrease both in the sea's west and east in the course of the last 30 years, Anatoly Velikanov from SakhNIRO fishery research institute said at a recent international symposium in Lisbon (Portugal) (as quoted by Ekho-DV).

During the same period of last 30 years the Alaska pollock stocks used to change spawning grounds in the Tatar Strait. More specifically, in 1960s they were located off southwest Sakhalin (at the depths of up to 100 meters), in 1970-1980s the spawning scene was located along the island's western coast and by now it has moved to its southwest but at larger depths of 100-500 meters. Anatoly Velikanov surmises that distribution of the APO concentrations is dependent on the climatic and oceanological factors, in particular, on the current's temperature. Changes of spawning grounds affect the volume and concentration of roes, thus causing a decrease of the mature pollock abundance.

At the same time, for the Russian fishermen the poor abundance of the Alaska pollock stocks in the Sea of Japan is not of great importance because the dominating share of the Russian APO harvest is contributed by the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea.