BarentsNews.com

In July this year, a group of specialists of PINRO leaded by research assistant - Ivan Oganin, contributed to delivery of information to the mackerel fishery area on board of MI-0617 “Persey-4”.

Hereditary fishermen from Shetland Islands located in south part of Norwegian Sea still remember old legends about huge school of big mackerel which approached almost to the coast, and it was unbelievably much of fish - mackerel was even disregarded as food and was fed to animals.

In present time the situation has turned, and there is an increased demand for this kind of fish. Far ago it was discovered that mackerel is a source of vitamin B 12 and D, besides that is reach of fatty acid – Omega 3.

Fishing of mackerel is not anymore regulated only in coastal economical area as it was untill recent time. From the year 2001 the fishery is regulated on the whole area where mackerel occur, including international waters of Norwegian Sea. Russian share in this region accounts to 38 thousand tonnes for the second year in a row.

It is known from the fishery history that Russian fishermen with help from branch scientists of North basin have proved that it is possible to successfully fish mackerel in the international waters, and it was spent a lot of capital and efforts to obtain that result. Till year 2000, fishing of mackerel was unregulated. Due to allocation of more fishery resources, the catch of mackerel has increased from 3.7 thousand tonnes in 1984 to 42.7 thousand tonnes in 2000. So far there is no real competition to Russian fleet in this area, although Norwegians for example have done their research of migration ways of mackerel from the beginning of 60s. Every year between 15 and 30 thousand tiny metal mark with a number being implanted in abdominal part of fish. In the context of a European Union’s project in 1997-1998 approximately 150 thousand mackerels were marked this way.

For a captain it is almost impossible to see sparkling school of mackerel from the bridge. Fish appears on the surface of water if the top layer is really warmed up. The flock is capable of making up to 5 knots in speed and as a result it can leave the fishermen 60-70 miles behind during one particular day.

In July this year, a group of specialists of PINRO leaded by research assistant - Ivan Oganin, contributed to delivery of information to the mackerel fishery area on board of MI-0617 “Persey-4”. The main target of this trip was to collect all relevant information about fishery feedstock situation and distribution conditions. This information would further be used as operative information by a Working group of ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) to develop recommendations in concern with the rational utilization of pelagic fish stock. Preliminary results of the research show that there is no decrease of mackerel in sea so far. Despite of really fragmentary accumulations of fish in the open area of sea, the total amount is bigger than same period of 2001 and as a result the fishery capacity has appeared to be significantly higher.

The fishery in the first half of July was mostly located at latitude of 66 North where mackerel stock in the open part of sea was most stable. The productivity on ships of CTM type (middle-sized freezing trawler) including MI-0617, turned out to exceed the planed level on 10 tons in average. The catch of large-capacity trawlers was often higher than 50 tons/day, some days the fishery was restricted by the processing capacity. Fishermen of the North basin due to well-timed relocation of recourses to most favourable areas have left their competitors from Kaliningrad far behind.

Sonar on board of MI-0617 have showed that due to radiation warming (caused by good weather conditions) schools kept very close to the surface – in the layer of 0 to 15 m, and even occurred on the surface. The migration speed of schools with average length of up to 100 m reached 4.5-5 knots. That means that a fishing boat at least has to meet this speed to handle catching mackerel. The density of fish in the fishery region varies from 1 to 200 tonnes per square mile. It is possible to detect schools only from a distance shorter than 400 m. But it was enough to help fishermen choosing the right fishing direction.

Big-sized and expensive fish is most likely to be found in north boarder-part of fattening area. It means that it is economically reasonable to put extra fishery resources in the front-part of fish accumulations before the last faze of forage migration when fish has best food and taste qualities, and also maximal weight. To achieve these goals it is necessary to have a lot of practical experience and operative organization of fishery. Furthermore the producers intending to beat their competitors on the market have begun to use spectroscopic tools to define fat level and color properties. It seems to be necessary also for Russian fishermen.