Известия ТИНРО (Sep 2016)
State of the stock and features of the fishery for arabesque greenling <i>Pleurogrammus azonus</i> Jordan at Metz (1913) in the waters of southern Kuril Islands
Abstract
Dynamics of commercial stock is considered for arabesque greenling at southern Kuril Islands on the data on size-age structure of its catches and fishery statistics for 1974-2015. The stock was the highest in the late 1970s when the spawning biomass was estimated as 35.103 t and the commercial biomass was about 40.103 t. After this maximal values, the arabesque greenling resources reduced fast to approximately 1.3.103 t for the spawning stock and 2.0.103 t for the commercial stock in the middle 1980s, and then grew gradually owing to irregular appearance of strong year-classes until the early 2000s (the commercial biomass in the 2001-2005 was 24.103 t, on average). The stock decreases again in the last decade, until nowadays. The dynamics is similar to the dynamics of the arabesque greenling stock at northern Hokkaido, so common processes of these stocks regulation are assumed, as the fishery in the zone of the stocks overlapping on the shelf between Sakhalin and Hokkaido. This area is a feeding ground for the greenling juveniles of both populations, spawning separately at Hokkaido and at southern Kuril Islands, and an important fishing ground for Japanese fleet. Annual landings of arabesque greenling by Japan changed in the last decades from 132.103 t in 1990s to 53.103 t in 2010s, with 75 % of yearlings (0+) on average, that exceeds considerably the Russian landings of this species at southern Kuril Islands as by-catch (on average 1 % of the total Russian catch in this area, 3-5 % of the Japanese catch of arabesque greenling).
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