Walleye pollock of the Okhotsk Sea: history of fishery and current status

The purpose of the work is to review the history of the development of walleye pollock stocks in the of Okhotsk sea, to analyze the fishery and the state of its stocks.

Methods: literature data, materials of long-term surveys by VNIRO (1997–2002) on the walleye pollock spawning grounds of Western Kamchatka, as well as the R/V «Professor Kaganovsky» in the spring of 2022 were used. Fishery statistics of OSM Monitoring.

Results: The maximum walleye pollock catch (0.91 million tons) in the North Sea of Okhotsk subarea was achieved in 1995. In the period 1998–2001 annual catches averaged 510 thousand tons, in 2002–2008 decreased to 210 thousand tons. Over the past decade, there has been a gradual increase in catch from 286 thousand tons in 2009 to 383 thousand tons in 2020. Pollock catches in the West Kamchatka and Kamchatka-K uril subzones after high fishery rates achieved in 1996–1997 (1.2 million tons), began to decline, falling in 2004 to 191 thousand tons, after which a tendency to their increase appeared. In the period 2016–2019 catches walleye pollock of East Okhotsk sea stabilized at the level of 617–618 thousand tons, in 2020 the catch amounted to 681 thousand tons. The walleye pollock stock in the East Sakhalin subzone is currently at a low level, its gradual recovery began in the mid-2000s in 2019–2020. its catch was 110 thousand tons.

Novelty: New data on walleye pollock stocks in the Okhotsk Sea are presented. Based on the results of a trawl survey conducted in the spring of 2022, the total number of walleye pollock in the Okhotsk Sea was estimated at 56.043 billion ind., biomass —  13.497 million tons, while the commercial stock was estimated at 10.413 million tons and 21.964 billion ind. Maps of the distribution of adult walleye pollock and eggs in the Okhotsk Sea in the spring of 2022 are given.

Practical significance: data on the status of walleye pollock stocks in the Okhotsk Sea will be used to prepare TAC materials, as well as recommendations for rational fishery.

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