Russia’s wild Pacific salmon fishing season officially started June 1, with overall landings anticipated to reach a high of 461,000 metric tons.

This year, the overall recommended salmon harvest is set at 460,979 metric tons, up 30 percent from 2017 catches, but 32 percent below last year’s historic record high landings of 677,900 metric tons.

Should the forecast come to fruition, it will be the fourth highest catch on record.

Abundance of pink salmon

The forecast is based on healthy pink salmon stocks in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk.

According to Russia’s Pacific Fishery Research Center TINRO data, the number of pink salmon amounts to one billion fish in the Bering Sea, and around 690 million fish in the Sea of Okhotsk.

The overall pink salmon harvest is expected to hit 293,500 metric tons, or 63.6 percent of the total projected wild salmon catch. In 2018, pink landings amounted to a record level of 511,200 metric tons.

Chum catches are expected to reach 116,000 metric tons, sockeye harvests are expected to account for 40,700 metric tons, coho catches are forecast at 9,700 metric tons, and king and salmon trout landings are recommended at 481.5 metric tons and 39 metric tons, respectively.

Pacific salmon fishing traditionally opens the Kamchatka region. The forecast harvest is set at 321,000 metric tons in this region, including 220,000 metric tons in the East Kamchatka zone, and up to 101,000 metric tons in the West Kamchatka zone.

The overall salmon catch in the Sakhalin region is expected to amount to around 82,000 metric tons.

The Magadan area could see 8,800 metric ton salmon catch, while Chukotka and Primorskiy Krai are expected to provide 6,500 metric tons and 700 metric tons, respectively.

The adopted wild salmon catches in 2019 are not final and might be corrected based on scientific recommendations, Russia’s federal fishery agency, Rosrybolovstvo, said.

Russia’s Pacific wild salmon season is the country’s second largest fishery in volume after pollock.

Fisheries

Russia’s wild salmon season is off to a strong start