MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/. Saury migration to Russian waters is small so far and 30,000-40,000 metric tons may be reeled in as of the end of 2026, head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries Ilya Shestakov told reporters.
"Saury fish runs are very small so far, several dozen thousand tons," the official said. "The challenging point for these fish species is that they enter gradually, so to say. Probably we will be able to catch 30,000-40,000 tons. We have no total acceptable catch regime. As much will come, so we will catch," he noted.
Vessels able to reel in saury are not too much in numbers at present since this fish was not caught for a long time, Shestakov noted.
"We plan to hold a big meeting with the fishermen this year to see what prospects we can have to augment the fleet. Competences were lost also, the same as we had for iwashi, when no people simply remained that departed to catch iwashi and understood how to catch," Shestakov noted.
Russia reeled in significant saury volumes, from 60,000 to 120,000 tons annually, in 1985-1994, 2001-2008 and 2011-2014. The figure plummeted to 615 tons by 2021 and Russian fishermen did not catch saury in 2022 because it left Russian coasts completely and its main accumulations were in remote areas.