As part of a working trip to the Far East, the head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, Ilya Shestakov, held a meeting with representatives of VNIRO on Pacific salmon fishing.
VNIRO Director Kirill Kolonchin outlined the main results of the completed fishing season. Optimistic expectations in 2021 were justified, moreover, the actual catch exceeded the projected volume by 17% and amounted to 539 thousand tons. Thus, 2021 came in third place in terms of salmon production, second only to 2018 (678 thousand tons) and 2009 (542 thousand tons).
The catch structure remained traditional - 79% of the total catch was for pink salmon. The actual catch of pink salmon exceeded forecast expectations by 32%. Sockeye salmon catches correspond to the forecast estimates (98% development), the final development of chum salmon was 80%, and coho salmon -74%. Deviation of less than 30% from the forecast values for complexly structured stock units, and in conditions of high subjectivity of salmon fishing is a good indicator, Kirill Kolonchin noted.
To improve the quality of operational forecasts in 2021, the program of marine expeditionary research "Salmon-2021" was prepared and implemented.
For the first time since 2015, trawl surveys of predanadrom migrations of salmon were carried out in the western part of the Bering Sea, and from the Okhotsk side of the Kuril Ridge. The research covered an area of more than 2.5 million km. squared. According to the results of the summer surveys, the assumptions about the high number of pink salmon were confirmed and that 2021 is close to the record 2018, when the salmon catch in the Sea of Okhotsk amounted to about 500 thousand tons.
For scientific support of the salmon fishing, 100 observation posts were organized on the shore, including those intended for research in the northern Kuril Islands. More than 100 researchers, more than 200 rivers, taking into account the number of producers in spawning areas, about 400 flight hours on manned aircraft, more than 100 flight hours of unmanned aerial vehicles, the integration and use of GIS systems and artificial intelligence algorithms to recognize salmon producers are an incomplete list of efforts expended by science to pass the fishing season. Based on operational data, more than 30 recommendations were prepared to adjust the volume of the projected catch of Pacific salmon, which made it possible to effectively use the available resource in some cases and ensure the filling of spawning areas in others.
According to science, the fact deserves separate consideration that the most significant reason for the decline in chum salmon and sockeye salmon catches in the Far East is not the volume of migrations or the formation of fishing conditions, but a significant decrease in the individual body weight of producers. Changes in the processes of energy/mass storage in conditions of increasing ocean temperature leads to the fact that producers "lose" up to 20% of weight. This is reflected in the annual losses of hundreds and thousands of tons of chum salmon and sockeye salmon catches in the basin, which also needs to be analyzed and investigated.
In addition, scientists are planning in the near future to develop the basics of predicting salmon approaches by river groups, improving the system of identification of pink salmon herds, both by genetic and other markers, expanding the use of marine survey data and modern information technologies to predict regional approaches of salmon.
VNIRO Press Service