No surprises in this year's Groundfish Forum Outlook: whitefish sector quite stable
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton Oct 16, 2014
The Groundfish Forum has concluded in Rome today, and the organizers have released their annual summary of groundfish harvests expected in 2015.
Totals expected harvest in 2015 for major wild caught species (cod, pollock, hake, hoki, redfish) were 7.078 million metric tons, vs. and estimate of 7.093 million metric tons in 2014.
Cod stocks will decline slightly, by around 100,000 tons mostly in the Barents Sea stock shared between Norway and Russia. Pollock will increase by about the same amount, driven mostly by a prediction of an 80,000 ton increase in Russia, and potentially as much as a 50,000 ton increase in Alaska. However, even though the stock will support the larger catch in Alaska, other management considerations, including the 2 million metric ton cap on all harvests, may mean the final pollock TAC is lower than these estimates.
What is remarkable is that of the 11 specific stocks the forum tracks, only North Pacific Hake is expected to be significantly different (i.e 10% or more) from the harvest level this year. The US harvest of North Pacific Hake (or whiting) is expected to fall from 268,000 tons this year to 200,000 tons next year....
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