Russian fishery companies in the Far East have reported positive harvest results of mackerel, sardine, and Pacific saury.
Fleet of Russian fisheries in the area consists of 20 vessels. At present, they have caught 13,400 metric tons (MT) against 8,500 MT, up 57.6 percent year-on-year, despite stormy weather conditions. Total catch for mackerel totaled 2,200 MT, up nearly 100 percent, while sardine was up 64 percent to 7,870 MT, and Pacific saury was up 28 percent to 3,300 MT.
The results could have been even higher, if the typhoon Talim had not hit the waters off the Sakhalin peninsula, Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries reported. The net increase rate had been up as much as 79 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2016 (10,400 MT in 2017 against 5,800 MT in 2016), but Typhoon Talim stopped fishing operations for several days and disturbed scientific works targeted to help fisheries. Foreign fisheries, mostly from Japan and South Korea, operating in the Russian and open waters of the north-west parts of the Pacific ocean, caught 13,200 MT, most of which was Pacific saury, according to the Federal Agency for Fisheries.
In total, Russian fishing companies’ harvest in 2017 was 3.66 million MT, an increase of 0.5 percent over the corresponding period of 2016.
One of the factors which contributed to the increase in volumes was the use of aviation for first time in the last 20 years. A scientific entity of the Federal Fisheries Agency in the Far East made a few flights over the local waters to provide fisheries with accurate information on moving of pelagic fish. Due to its success, the practice will continue, the agency said.
