Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture has announced a quota increase for pollock caught in its Far East Basin fishery in 2025, a move counter to both scientific advice and requests from some national fishing groups.
Russia was initially considering cutting its pollock quota, with the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) Head Ilya Shestakov acknowledging requests from the Association of Fishing Fleet Shipowners (ASFF), the All-Russian Association of Fisheries Enterprises, Entrepreneurs and Exporters (VARPE), and the Association of Pollock Harvesters (ADM) for a decrease of the total allowable catch. The TAC for pollock for Russian fisheries in 2024 was 2.285 million metric tons (MT), an increase over the 2.06 million MT quota in 2023.
The All-Russian Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) also proposed a slightly lower quota of 2.26 million MT for 2025, following surveys of the stock.
However, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture announced an increase in the Far East pollock fishing quota for 2025 to 2.46 million MT, up 7 percent year over year.
It increased the TAC for the Sea of Okhotsk 21 percent to 1.155 million MT. The Northern Okhotsk and Western Kamchatka subregions were allocated ...