Russian fisheries researchers are warning that the latest estimates of the size of the pollock biomass in the country's key harvesting region could lead to a sharp decline in the total allowable catch as early as 2024.
Scientists at Vladivostok-based fishery research center TINRO – the Pacific branch of Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) – reported a decline in the number of pollock in the northern Sea of Okhotsk compared with the previous year.
The number of generations of pollock born between 2014-2016, which now make up current commercial harvests, are in line with the average long-term figures.
