Russia’s Pacific Scientific Research Fisheries Center (TINRO) is recommending fishing of Pacific mackerel and sardine in the waters of the Pacific and the Sea of Japan be resumed, based on findings of a perennial assessment of pelagic fish stocks in the area.
Scientists at the center set total allowable catches for mackerel and sardines at 15,000 and 5,000 metric tons, respectively, for 2015. But forecasts are landings could amount to more than 100,000 metric tons by 2020-2025.
Scientific research on the stocks since the mid-2000s shows reproduction of mackerel and sardines significantly increased, TINRO said, which was reflected in the growth of bycatch of these species during Pacific saury fishing.
"Off the Kuril islands the total biomass of mackerel amounted to more than 3 million metric tons, while biomass of sardines surpassed 1 million metric tons, which is much more than the figure of 2014," TINRO wrote in its report.
