From 1 June through 1 September, Russian commercial fishermen hauled in just 250,265 metric tons (MT) of salmon, 44 percent of the record-breaking haul of 2018. The season doesn’t end until December, but it is unlikely the totals will change enough to offset the much lower figures.
According to data from the Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries, this summer, fishermen in Russia’s Far East caught 168,546 MT of humpback salmon, 44,455 MT of chum, 30,341 MT of sockeye, 6,595 MT of coho, 317 MT of chinook, and nine MT of cherry salmon.
All except for the cherry salmon – up 14.6 percent year-over-year – are back in lower numbers this year. According to the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), catches of humpback salmon are down 64.8 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2018 (humpback salmon return in two-year cycles). Chum is down by 27.8 percent, sockeye is down 34.1 percent (with fishing already ended), coho catches have decreased by 6.5 percent, and chinook catches are down 2.2 percent.
Fisheries scientists in Russia said there is nothing unusual in the figures, with catches in line with previously forecasted predictions. Igor Melnikov, deputy head of the Pacific branch of VNIRO, told Fishnews scientists had warned of an average yield in 2020 for the last decade.
“I think that the weather of the last winter was a factor. It was cold in the northern part of the Bering Sea, while the Pacific south of the Bering Sea was warmer than in last years. As a result, the space with comfortable temperatures of water for salmon was one-third smaller than usual, which led to denser accumulations of stocks, and the deficit of feed. That can be seen in the size of the species – the fish are smaller than in past years,” he said.
According to Melnikov, lower catches are likely in coming years.
“Such a cycle is not something abnormal. There were times when the catch was just 70,000 to 80,000 MT of salmon,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Konstantin Baidin/Shutterstock
