Characteristics of Distant Water Small Trawl in the North Pacific Ocean Operating in the Russian EEZ

Abstract

The fishing reports of one trawler from 1989 to 1994 covering 4499 hauls were analyzed to understand the catch characteristics of distant water small trawl operating in the Russian EEZ. Among 11 market categories of catch species, the sum of six categories reached 91.2% of the total catch. The catch composition of each haul was observed to have the wide range of multi-species, where the hauls of the single category exceeded 50% in catch weight ranged from 41.2% to 74.6% of the number of hauls according to the season and fishing grounds. Hauls exceeding 90% in catch weight by single category were likely to be observed in hauls which caught atka mackerel in Kuril Islands water in summer. In contrast, flatfish, Pacific cod and bighand thornyhead showed a lower catch percentage weight regardless of the season and fishing grounds even though they were major target categories in this fishery. Walleye pollock, a highly priority category, was often caught together with Pacific cod, flatfish, and sculpins. These differences in categories for the predominance tendency in catch composition could be explained from time/space distributions for each species as well as the operational strategy for such as towing durations.