The main issue on the agenda was the discussion of the results of the International trawl-acoustic survey to assess the stock of perch in the pelagial of the Irminger Sea, carried out in June-August 2021. The meeting of the Working Group was attended by specialists from Russia, Germany, Iceland and Norway. The Russian Federation was represented by Alexey Astakhov, a leading engineer of the Atlantic Branch of the VNIRO FSBI (AtlantNIRO) and Alexey Rolsky, a senior researcher at the Polar Branch of the VNIRO (PINRO named after N.M.Knipovich).
This year, the vessels of Iceland and Germany did not take part in the trawl-acoustic survey of the beaked perch. The survey in 2021 was carried out by the Russian vessel STM "Atlantida" in the water area covering the main distribution area of the perch-beak. The biomass of the beaked perch, as a deep-water object, was estimated in the range of depths of its habitat of 200-900 m. For the first time in its long-term practice, the shooting of a perch-beak was implemented at a reduced intergal distance, which contributed to increasing the reliability of the data obtained.
The highest concentrations of perch were observed in the water area of the fishing zone of Greenland. The total biomass of perch was about 1 million tons, which is the highest figure since 2011.
The Working Group highly appreciated the survey results and recommended their use in the further work of ICES.
The route (acoustic tacks), the position of the trawl and hydrological stations of the International trawl-acoustic survey on the assessment of the stock of perch in the Irminger Sea in 2021, performed by the STM "Atlantida" vessel.
VNIRO Press Service