On the Improvement of Pink Salmon Fishery Management (on the Sakhalin- Kuril Region as an example)

Abstract

   Purpose: Assess the current state of the pink salmon fishery management and determine ways to improve the scientific support of the pink salmon fishing to ensure the rational usage of its stocks.   Methods used: Analysis of historical data and methods used to assess the state of pink salmon stocks and develop recommendations for their usage.   Results: Over the past decade, discrepancies between expected and actual returns of pink salmon, to the eastern coast of Sakhalin in particular, have averaged more than double. Those inconsistencies are associated both with many uncertainties in the development of forecasts and with the representativeness of the data used. Wrong estimates form the basis of the submitted fishing strategies, which negatively affects operational fishing management. Using the returns of pink salmon in 2021–2022 as an example, it is shown that the accuracy of forecasting could be higher when using standardized primary data, for which it is necessary to restore the corresponding database, the support of which was interrupted in 2015. It is also proposed to focus on strengthening operational forecasting as a basis for the development of fishery management measures.   Practical significance: Restoration of the primary database and return to previously well-established methods of fishery management should increase the effectiveness of scientific part in pink salmon fishery of the region.