Russia cuts pollock TAC 6% for 2018
While Pacific wild salmon catches are projected to be at high levels in 2018.
Russia's fishery agency Rosrybolovstvo, is cutting the country's pollock quota by 6 percent for 2018, to 1.78 million metric tons, it announced.
The total allowable catch (TAC) for all species in 2018 is set at 2.86 million metric tons.
Pollock quotas for the West Bering Sea, East Kamchatka, North Kurile and South Kurile zones are set at 690,600 metric tons, while in the Sea of Okhotsk the quota is set at more than 1.07 million metric tons.
Pollock TACs in the Sea of Japan and in the Chukotka region were set at 12,100 metric tons and 5,400 metric tons respectively.
Meanwhile, the quota for Pacific herring dropped from 326,150 metric tons in 2017 to 324,500 metric tons for 2018. This includes 48,100 metric tons in the Karaginskaya subarea, 276,000 metric tons in the Sea of Okhotsk, and 350 metric tons in the Sea of Japan.
The TAC for Pacific cod increased 9.3 percent to 132,960 metric tons, with the flounder TAC climbing 6.1 percent to 81,150 metric tons. Allowed crab catches in Russia’s Far East increased 11 percent compared with 2017 to 81,700 metric tons.
Shrimp TAC increased 900 metric tons to more than 14,000 metric tons.
In the Russian Northern fishery basin, the TACs for red king crab and opilio snow crab were set at 9,940 metric tons and 9,840 metric tons respectively.
The TAC for Baltic herring was set at 29,500 metric tons; sprat amounted to 42,600 metric tons; and cod quota was set at 5,900 metric tons.
In addition, Russian scientists at Vladivostok-based TINRO-center are projecting high catches of Pacific wild salmon for 2018, based on the results of a trawl survey in the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, where large amounts of spawning salmon were found.
However, TINRO hasn’t yet revealed its recommendations on 2018 wild salmon harvests.
In 2017, wild salmon harvests reached 347,600 metric tons, down 18.8 percent from last year's level and around 250 metric tons more than in 2015 -- pink salmon runs in high-volume cycles every two years.
As of Nov. 7, Russia’s overall seafood harvest amounted to 4.16 million metric tons, up 2.1 percent over the same time last year.
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