Modern specialized fishery of sea fish in the western Bering Sea

Abstract

The shelf and continental slope of the western Bering Sea, being among the most productive areas of the Far-Eastern Seas of Russia, became exploited by commercial fishery half a century ago, after introduction of 200-mile exclusive economic zones in 1977 and relocation of the Russian fishing fleet from the eastern Bering Sea to its western part. In 2010-2019, about 20 % of the total catch of sea fish in the Far-Eastern basin (excluding pacific salmons) were caught in the West Bering Sea fishery zone. Among the fishery districts of the Russian Far East, this area is currently the 1st one by annual catch of pacific cod, grenadiers, sculpins and sablefish, 2nd — by catch of walleye pollock, halibuts and skates, 3rd — by catch of rockfishes, and 4th — by catch of pacific herring and flounders. Features of specialized fishery in the West Bering Sea fishery zone in 2010-2019 are clarified. Now 48 types of the specialized fishery can be distinguished here, while 96.3 % of the average annual landing is provided by the following 8 most important types: walleye pollock midwater trawl fishery (77.8 % of mean annual catch); pacific herring midwater trawl fishery (6.1 %); pacific cod bottom longline fishery (4.7 %); walleye pollock Danish seine fishery (2.7 %); grenadiers bottom longline fishery (2.4 %), pacific cod Danish seine fishery (0.9 %); squids bottom trawl fishery (0.9 %); and pacific cod bottom trawl fishery (0.8 %). All these types of fishery are highly specialized and portion of the target objects in the catches ranges from 76 to 96 % (according to official statistics), while the by-catch accounted as 4-24 %. The is no specialized fishery on such objects as rockfishes, arrowtooth and kamchatka flounders, and sablefish in the West Bering Sea fishery zone, but they are landed as by-catch. The fishery statistics with the data sorting to specialized fishery and by-catch can be used quite effectively for the stocks assessment and determining acceptable level of their exploitation, with recommendations for fishery regulation, including evaluation the possible level of non-specialized by-catch.