SEAFOODNEWS.COM โ by John Sackton Oct 16, 2014 โ 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.
However, given the recent early shut down in that fishery due to bycatch limits, the 2014 forecast may not materialize.
All of these eleven groundfish stocks are under secure and robust management systems, and this is certainly a factor contributing to their overall stability.
No management system aims to avoid changes in the stock, rather the goal is to reduce fishing pressure as when needed so that the maximum sustainable yield can be maintained over a longer period of time.
Many of these stocks appear to be benefiting from longer term healthy management. For example, taking the group as a whole, since 2012, the total harvest has risen about 4%.
Regarding farmed species, especially tilapia and pangasius, the Groundfish forum does not have accurate estimates. Instead they extrapolate from FAO data. For catfish and pangasius, they expect a total producton of 1.727 million tons, down substantially from the FAO estimate of 2.025 million tons in 2012. The reduction is largely a result of revisions to producton numbers from Vietnam, which is seen as producting about 750,000 tons currently, not the 1 million plus tons they produced a few years ago.
Regarding tilapia, the forum was not willing to go beyond the FAO numbers which show a global production of 3.197 million tons in 2012.
Taking both farmed and wild species together, total whitefish is around 11.4 million tons, of which 62% is wild caught, and 38% is farmed.
A link to the Forum handout is here.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.