Russian and Norwegian fishery authorities have agreed to consider the possibility of an increase in the limits of the snow crab catch in the Barents Sea twofold over its level.
Ilya Shestakov, the head of the Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries, and Norwegian Minister of Fisheries Per Sandberg came to the agreement following talks at Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium in late April.
Both agreed that the two countries’ recent cooperation and joint efforts in the Barents Sea since 2015 have made it possible for the snow crab population to recover. Shestakov and Sandberg are aiming to increase the total allowable catch (TAC) of Barents Sea snow crab to 40,000 metric tons (MT) for 2019, pending additional scientific research, Shestakov told SeafoodSource.
Norway and Russia have been harvesting snow crab in the Barents Sea since 2015, when the two countries signed an agreement to share fishing rights in the open part of the Barents Sea based on the United Nations 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea. In accordance to the protocol, any fishing activities in the area are possible only with the consent of both Russia and Norway. Before 2015, other countries had been fishing in the Barents Sea, resulting in overfishing. The population of snow crab is expected to rise next year due to the species’ life cycle, which requires five years for a larva to become a catchable specimen.
In 2014, 8,000 metric tons (MT) of snow crab was harvested in the area. In 2015, when the limits were set, Russia’s TAC for snow crab was just 1,600 MT. In 2017, it was increased several times, to 7,870 MT. The Russian part of the TAC for 2018 is 9,840 MT, nearly half of the total quota (shared with Norway) of almost 20,000 MT.
Russia’s total expected catch of snow crab is expected to be 87,550 MT for 2018, with 68,770 MT caught in the Russian Far East and 19,780 MT predicted for the Northern region, including the Barents Sea. Russia’s total intake of snow crab in 2017 was 95,000 MT, with up to 57,000 MT exported.
While the increase in the snow crab TAC is good news for Russian fishing companies, the business landscape for crab fishing in Russia may drastically change soon. Russia’s government is currently considering a return to the distribution of crab quotas through auctions, an idea first broached in late 2017.
In March 2018, Shestakov said a hybrid proposal, implementing limited auctions along with the current historical catch modeling, is under consideration. However, a delay in the government’s decision on the issue has be linked to the formation of the new government in Russia and the recent appointment of a new head of the Ministry of Agriculture. The new minister is Dmitry Patrushev, the son of Nikolai Patrushev, the former head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and current head of the Security Council of Russia.
Photo courtesy of Severpost.ru
