Union of Fishermen of the North reporting results of its operations in 2006

In 2006 members of Murmansk-based Union of Fishermen of the North associating new private companies as opposed privatized combines harvested 179,000 tonnes of finfish and other aquatic species. The Union's members produced 152,000 tonnes of food fish items, 1.14 million nominal canned fish units (a statistical unit equal to 325 grams) and 1804 tonnes of fishmeal. About 110,000 tonnes of seafood (72%) were supplied to the domestic market, of which 200 tonnes were sold at low prices under the social program Deshyovaya Ryba (Cheap Fish).

The share of the Union's catches accounted for 23% of the total harvest of the North Fisheries Basin (Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Karelia, etc.) and 31% of the province's harvest (Murmansk). In 2006 the Union's members practically exhausted their offshore quotas of cod, haddock and red king crab in the Barents Sea, mackerel and Atlanto-Scandian herring in the Norwegian Sea, halibut in the NAFO zone and in West Greenland and ocean perch in the NEAFC zone.

At the same time, a large part of the catch quotas remained underexploited by some of the Union's members. First of all, those were quotas of blue whiting in the Faroese fishing zone and in Norwegian EEZ, as well as extra quotas of cod, herring and red king crab allocated by the Federal Fisheries Agency thanks to the Union's efforts.

Due to high fuel prices the Union's members failed to cover their quotas of polar cod Boreogadus saida for the second year running. In 2006 the Union harvested only 7593 tonnes of the small fish of the cod family out of the organization's total quota of 18,542 tonnes.

Background

Now the Union of Fishermen of the North embraces 69 companies with a total workforce of ca.5000 people. The members all together run 97 fishing, 14 transport and auxiliary vessels. In 2006 the Union's fleet grew by 9 fishing ships.