For this year, the forecast for the catch of salmon in the Russian Federation is below the average for the last 10 years. If this volume is not enough for “large exports” of red caviar, its supply may be limited, Ilya Shestakov, head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, told reporters in St. Petersburg today.
“We do not expect a shortage of caviar, because even before that, with certain, even not very high, catches, we still exported a fairly large volume. If this year the volume (catch) is insufficient for the volume of exports that was before, we we will simply make a decision to limit it,” he said. “We have all the necessary opportunities and mechanisms for this, and if necessary, we will thereby adjust prices.”
According to him, so far the forecast for salmon fishing is not very optimistic, slightly below the average for the previous ten years. “But now our research vessels are working directly in the areas of salmon spawning, and I think that somewhere by mid-June we will have a more accurate forecast for fishermen. It is quite possible that the situation will improve during this time. they made an even more pessimistic forecast for themselves, so that, if necessary, they could quickly make the decisions that I mentioned earlier,” he said.
According to scientists, the salmon catch this year could reach 322,000 tons against 539,000 tons in 2021. Traditionally, the main volume of salmon is expected to be mastered in the Kamchatka Territory – 150 thousand tons. In the Sakhalin region, it is recommended to extract 121 thousand tons, in the Khabarovsk Territory – 40 thousand tons. In the Magadan region, a catch of 4.46 thousand tons is predicted, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug – about 3.6 thousand tons, in the Primorsky Territory – 2.1 thousand tons.
For salmon species, it is recommended to catch 190 thousand tons of pink salmon, 90 thousand tons of chum salmon, 33 thousand tons of sockeye salmon, 8 thousand tons of coho salmon. The recommended catch for Chinook Salmon is 510 tons, for Sims – 35 tons.