The Vostok-1 Fishing Collective Farm has taken delivery of a modernised fishing vessel to develop fishing for crab in deeper waters in the Sea of Japan. Vostok-1 was a pioneer of this fishery in the early 2000s when there was little interest in catching crabs, and has made a success of its tenacity in sticking with the crab fishery over the years.
Chans 106 has been extensively modernised, with new auxiliary engines, a processing factory and deck equipment capable of hauling gear from depths of as much as 2500 metres. It has been delivered to its owners in Vladivostok, ready for the first trip to the Sea of Japan, with a welcoming ceremony and a blessing for the ship before it sails.
Crab fisheries in the region have been carried out so far down to around 1200 metres, and the indications are that there are prospects for good fishing off the edge of the continental shelf.
Vostok-1’s experience is that a converted longliner fishing for crab is able to catch and process 30 to 40 tonnes per days, and the collective farm now catches around 15,000 tonnes of fish and 8000 tonnes of crab annually.
According to the Federal Fisheries Agency, new opportunities are opening up for the Russian fleet’s deep-water activities, and research organisation TINRO is planning a research campaign in the far East for this year, including the deeper areas of the Sea of Okhotsk that were last surveyed in 1989, and the first survey for ten years is also planned for the areas around the Kuril Islands and south-eastern Kamchatka.
