Catches structure of hydrobionts in the trap survey of crabs in the Okhotsk sea

Abstract

In the world, annually the level of emissions from fisheries in the seas reaches 10.8% or 9.1 million tons per year, and according to Russian experts, only in the trawl and snurry fisheries of the Russian Far East, annual emissions are about 1.2 million tons. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to analyze the structure of catches of the main commercial species of crabs and by-catch of other invertebrates and fish. The collection of biological materials and fishing statistics was carried out in the course of research work from July 27 to October 5, 2021 on the research vessel (RV) Zodiak in the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk (North Sea of Okhotsk subzone SOM, 55°01ʹ58 °05ʹ N and 142°00ʹ-154°02ʹ E; West Kamchatka subzone ZK, 58°00ʹ-59°40ʹ N and 154°45ʹ-159°30ʹ E). In the SOM, studies have shown that, depending on the depth, the near-bottom temperature varied widely from –1.48 to 2.84 °С, in the WK — from 0.20 to 6.72 °С, which is generally typical for this season of the year and water areas. The number and distribution of the main objects of the crab fishery, namely the opilio snow crab in the SOM and the blue crab in the ZK, are at the average long-term level. A rare extensive research area made it possible to describe the true distribution of crabs. The structure of hydrobiont catches also included 13 trumpeter species and 13 fish species in two subzones of the Sea of Okhotsk. Since crab fishing in different periods of the year is carried out in different water areas and is mainly concentrated in a small area, structure of catches is likely will be less diverse.