Russian fisheries in North Atlantic and Central Eastern Atlantic on 1-8 January 2008

In the first week of January 2008 Russia's registered catch in provisional figures the North Atlantic and Central Eastern Atlantic amounted to 8500 metric tons, 5500 tonnes up on the result of the closing week of the year 2007, fishery sources in Murmansk told www.fishnet-russia.com (https://www.fishnet.ru/).

Just like in the end of 2007, in the opening week of the current year 2008, practically without a halt, the Russian fleet continued harvesting cod and haddock in three areas of the Barents Sea, blue whiting in the Norwegian Sea and pelagic fish in the Central Eastern Atlantic. A considerable increase of catches as compared to the previous week could be attributed mostly to early activation of practically all the fisheries, except for red king crab in the Barents Sea, out of the new quotas 2008.

According to the daily catch reports, starting from 1 January 2008 up to 10 vessels began harvesting bottomfish species in the Barents Sea with the bulk of the fleet concentrating in the Russian zone. In the course of the first week of 2008 the number of vessels quickly grew and by 8 January 2008 the fishing efforts on the bottomfish grounds of the Barents Sea grew to 30 in number. Due to the expected migrations of mature fish to the spawning grounds of cod, haddock and saithe, the bulk of the fishing vessels started moving to the Norwegian EEZ. The fishery conditions remained satisfactory with the total harvest through the week reaching ca.1200 tonnes of cod, 500 tonnes of haddock and nearly 200 tonnes of saithe. Taking into account location of the vessels, the bulk of the cod harvest through the week (more than 40% namely) was contributed already by the Norwegian EEZ. The total harvest of bottomfish species through the first week of January 2008 amounted to ca.2000 tonnes, 1300 tonnes up from the result of the previous week.

Red king crab

In the first week of the year 2008 the red king crab fishery out of the new quota was started by M-0336 Arctic Wolf built in 1982 in Denmark and owned by OOO Dimas (ltd), the ship reporting daily catches of 3-4 tonnes of crabs. By the end of the week the fishery was also conducted by M-0263 Atka Enterprise built in 1974 in Port-Arthur owned by ZAO Arcticservice (closed JSC). Due to small fishing efforts, the total harvest of red king crab in the Barents Sea in the first week of January 2007 was estimated at no more than 30 tonnes.

Blue whiting

As of 1 January 2008 blue whiting fishery in the Norwegian Sea was conducted by three large vessels based in Russia's North Fisheries Basin, namely by M-0009 Vassily Lozovsky owned by OAO Murmansk Trawl Fleet (plc), M-0041 Kapitan Gorbachev owned by OAO Arkhangelsk Trawl Fleet (plc) and S-0158 Semen Lapshenkov owned by OOO Kemskie Promysly (ltd) with the latter ship registered in the port of Saint Petersburg. By the end of the week under the analysis the above group operating within the Faroese fishing zone increased to 7 vessels. More specifically, the catch rates were reported by M-0024 Sergey Makarevich owned by OOO Erzi-Nord (ltd), M-0007 Pavel Kutakhov owned by OAO Murmansk Trawl Fleet (plc), M-0255 Kapitan Buga owned by OOO Robinzon (ltd), M-0272 Akvamarin owned by ZAO Karat-1 (closed JSC) and K-1990 Staryi Arbat owned by Kaliningrad-based ZAO Westrybflot (closed ZAO). The group's results through the week totaled more than 2000 tonnes. Apart from the eastern part of the Faroese fishing zone, some of the vessels harvested blue whiting in the southern part of the FFZ.

Central Eastern Atlantic

On 1 January 2008 only two large Russian trawlers based in Murmansk-led North Fisheries Basin were targeting pelagic species in the zones of Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara. By the end of the first week of January 2008 the catch rates were reported already by four trawlers, including two vessels coming from Kaliningrad. As a result the area's total harvest through the week amounted to 4300 tonnes. In the Mauritanian zone the Russian fleet harvested more than 2000 tonnes of fish, dominated by horse mackerel (41%) and sardine (34%). In the Moroccan zone the Russian harvest of 1850 tonnes was dominated by sardine, mackerel and horse mackerel with the corresponding shares in the total catch correspondingly amounting from 35% to 31%. In the waters of Western Sahara the Russian fishermen harvested less than 500 tonnes of fish, mostly horse mackerel (48%).

Russian catch in the North Atlantic and Central Eastern Atlantic on 1-8 January 2008, provisional figures