Russia is planning to up the number of fisheries research surveys in conducts both in domestic and foreign waters in 2019.
In December, Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries accepted a preliminary plan, drafted and discussed by the Board of Directors of Scientific Research Institutes, that calls for renovation of the industry science’s fleet and the carrying out of more research to better value fish stocks.
In total, 316 expeditions are planned for 2019, which is 11 less than in 2018, but the number of days spent by scientists in the seas will increase in comparison to 2018. A focus of research will be salmon in the Pacific Ocean. Over 28 expeditions, Russian scientists are planning to plot the whole life-cycle of salmon, from spawning grounds to the life of juveniles to their migration processes. And as a result of cooperation due to the International Year of Salmon, which was inaugurated at the II Global Fishery Forum and Exhibition on St. Petersburg, Russia, in September 2018, Russian scientists also plan to take part in an international research project studying salmon in the North Pacific.
Russia also plans to conduct large-scale studies of stocks of crab in the Sea of Japan as well as diving research of pollock, crab, and salmon in the Sea of Okhotsk, near the southern Kuril Islands, and the Sea of Japan. Both manned and unmanned aircraft will aid the research vessels taking part in these studies.
In 2019, the number of expeditions outside Russian territorial waters will more than double, to 26 against 11 in 2018. The primary focus of this year’s research will be on pelagic fish in the zones of Mauritania and Morocco, poutassou in the North Atlantic, pelagic and deep-water fish in the North Pacific.
For the first time since 2002, an expedition to the Atlantic part of the Antarctic is planned with the goal of surveying Antarctic krill, calamari, and mesopelagic fish.
Ilya Shestakov, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries, ordered the chairman of the board of directors of Scientific Institutes to conduct more surveys in the Northern fishery basin of Russia, so as to give scientific support to officials so that they could have a better negotiating position for talks with their Norwegian counterparts and discussions at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Shestakov said the highest priority should be the study of the stock of Northern shrimp, which has been getting a lot of attention from fisheries over recent years.
Shestakov also announced a special five-to-seven-year plan to maintain and repair scientific vessels now in operation. There has been a high level of deterioration in the fleet, especially in the Northern fishery basin, which was cited to be one of the most serious impediments to conducting research. Another major problem is high gasoline prices.
In 2018, Russian scientific fishery institutes conducted 327 expeditions, including 11 outside of the national economic zone, which was 60 percent more than in 2017.
Photo courtesy of the Federal Fishery Agency of Russia
