The board of directors of Russia’s fishery scientific institutes has approved an increase of total allowable catch (TAC) for cod in two zones of the Far East fishery basin by 33 percent, to 80,000 metric tons (MT) for 2018. The move may add four percent to the overall Russian catch of cod this year.
In late March, the board of directors of scientific and research fishery institutes, chaired by head of the Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries, decided to increase the TAC for cod for West Bering zone from 49,800 MT to 66,300 MT and from 10,200 MT to 13,700 MT in the Chukotka zone for 2018. The move ups the TAC for these two neighboring zones in the Far Eastern fishery basin from 60,000 MT to 80,000 MT, or 33 percent. Final figures for each zone may differ as long as the overall catch doesn’t exceed 80,000 MT.
In total, almost 500,000 MT of cod was caught in Russia in 2017, with the Northern fishery basin yielding nearly 397,000 MT (up 0.62 percent to 2016) and the Far Eastern basin yielding 102,670 MT (up 17 percent from 2016).
The TAC for cod in the Far East for 2018 was set at a level of 132,960 MT, including: West Bering zone – 49,800 MT, East Kamchatka zone – 32,000 MT, North Kuril zone – 12,550 MT, South Kuril zone – 7,310 MT, West Kamchatka subzone – 4,700 MT, Kamchatka - Kuril subzone – 11,100 MT, West Sakhalin subzone – 3,600 MT, Primorye zone – 1,700 MT, Chukotka zone – 10,200 MT. In comparison to 2017, the TAC for 2018 was 11,400 MT more.
Thus, adding another 20,000 MT will increase the TAC for cod in this basin to 152,960 MT, or by 15 percent.
For the Northern fishery basin, the TAC for 2018 was 331,000 MT (out of 782,000 MT agreed by Norway and Russia), so the increase in the Far East will add to Russia’s cod TAC by four percent.
Change may be coming in 2019, however. In May, the Pacific scientific research fishery center held public hearings to approve next year’s limits, which it will then recommend for fishery authorities to establish for species for the Far East. The fisheries experts at the meeting expressed caution and signaled they were not ready to establish higher limits for cod than in 2018. Their initial recommendation for the 2019 TAC for cod is 146,800 MT, which is higher than initially set for 2018, but less than the corrected figures.
Photo courtesy of Roskazhestvo
