Russia has set a total allowable catch (TAC) for pollock for 2021 of nearly 2 million metric tons (MT).
The exact 2021 TAC of 1.996 million metric tons is a bit higher than the 1.994 million MT for this year. But while the total biomass of pollock is 15 million MT, which is enough for a robust TAC and a fishing season in line with the successful one experienced this year by the industry, the future of the fishery doesn’t look that bright, according to the Scientific Consultative Counsel on Pollock and Cod at the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO).
Data gathered by VNIRO in winter and spring 2020 show a possible decline in pollock catches beginning in 2023. According to a VNIRO press release, Russian fisheries are now catching pollock generations of the years 2014 through 2016. Subsequent recruitments of pollock born in the years 2017 through 2019 are less abundant, so a considerable decrease in TAC can be expected, it said. The statement was in line with earlier predictions made by the agency last year.
For 2021, TAC will be divided as follows: 415,000 MT for the Western Bering Zone; 22,500 MT for the Karaginskaya subzone; 82,800 MT for the Petropavlovsk Komandor subzone; 103,300 MT for the Northern Kuril zone; 116,700 MT for the Southern Kuril zone; 5,000 MT for the Chukotka zone; 37,200 MT for the Chukchee Sea; 23,200 MT for the Primorye subzone; 4,000 MT for the Western Sakhalin subzone; 381,600 MT for the Northern Okhotsk subzone; 381,600 for the Western Kamchatka subzone; 296,900 MT for the Kamchatka Kuril subzone, and 126,100 MT for the Eastern Sakhalin subzone.
Photo courtesy of Russian Fishery Company
