To the Question of the Use of Climatic-Oceanological Predictors to Forecast Pacific Salmon Stock Abundance in Kamchatka

Abstract Excerpt:
During almost 100 years (1925–2020) of fishing, an average annual catch of salmon in the Russian Far East (RFE) was about 170,000 tons, of which, approximately 110,000 tons (data for 1971–2020) were contributed by the Kamchatka stocks (Fig. 1). On average, annual RFE salmon catches consisted of 60–70% pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), 25% chum (O. keta), and 10% sockeye (O. nerka) salmon. The other Pacific salmon species together contributed < 5% of the total. The share of chum catches in Kamchatka were slightly lower (up to 15%), while sockeye salmon catches were higher (more than 15%). In the recent decade (2011–2020), annual salmon catches in Kamchatka were generally higher than 252,000 tons. The lowest catch (~ 138,000 tons) was recorded in 2013 and the highest (~ 498,000 tons) in 2018. This appears to be a historic peak of Pacific salmon abundance in Kamchatka in the 20^th and beginning of 21^st centuries (Bugaev et al. 2020).