The Russian Scientific Fishery Institutes’ Council of Directors has revised its preliminary figures for total allowable catch (TAC) in Russia for the next year, enacting quota increases for some key species.
Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries leader Ilya Shestakov, who chaired the council, said that scientific advice was needed for TAC corrections based on forecasts and new confirmed stocks.
“We discuss the figures in advance to be duly prepared and to be able to give national fisheries orienting points for the year 2021,” Shestakov said in an opening statement kicking off the meeting.
Russian TAC is traditionally approved by science one year prior, and is usually signed by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture in October or November of the current year.
TAC is a large part of the national harvest. Over the last 10 years, Russia’s TAC was between 2.76 million metric tons (MT) and 3.21 million MT. For 2021, it’s currently set at 3.2 million MT, a slight increase over 2020. The country’s catch in 2018 was 5.03 million MT, a record high in the last 25 years, with the year 2019 bringing nearly 4.95 million MT.
The council has decided to increase quotas for cod by 18 percent to 212,880 MT. Meanwhile, the pollock quota will go up by 8 percent to 1.977 million MT, pacific herring will increase by 14 percent to 354,570, and sprat climb 7 percent to 45,500 MT.
Quotas for other species were at the average level observed in previous years.
The TAC for pollock for 2019 was 1.786 million MT. The quote for 2021, which is close to 2 million MT, may be the last high-yielding year in the mid-term prospective, officials speculated.
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