The work was carried out from a specialized fishing vessel, which set out on its first voyage to catch whelks. The new vessel was named after the honored catcher – SRTM-k “Alexander Shalin” (OOO “Mag-Si International”), which, after 30 years of work in the gastropod fishery in the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, ended its glorious career last year.
The research was conducted from June to August of this year in the North-Okhotsk subzone of the Sea of Okhotsk – a traditional place for catching whelks. Here, one of the most productive concentrations of gastropods in the world's oceans is located. Thanks to the joint efforts of fishermen and scientists, gastropods (whelks) have become a recognizable and beloved brand of consumers. It should also be noted that in addition to the main product "whelk carcasses", a new product was introduced to the market - "whelk in a shell", which gives the manufacturer an exclusive competitive advantage and allows you to get the maximum profit from its sale without any special risks.
During the monitoring work, significant material was collected characterizing the biological state and spatial distribution of the main commercial species of gastropods.
Biological analyses were carried out on more than 30 thousand whelks. In addition to monitoring the fishery in the traditional whelk fishing area, exploratory work was carried out to expand the production area, accumulations of deep-sea whelk species were studied and an assessment was made of the possibility of involving previously poorly or completely unused concentrations of gastropods in the fishery.
In addition to the work performed, experimental studies on the survival of gastropods are planned for next year, in order to develop biotechnology for their maintenance during transportation in a live form.
The collected materials are planned to be used to update the assessment of gastropod stocks, including for the purpose of expanding the fishing area and preparing forecasts of the TAC of whelks. In addition, these data will serve as the basis for developing recommendations for the rational exploitation of gastropod stocks.
Press service of VNIRO