Resources of major commercial species of pinnipeds in the Russian Federation and their use in 2014–2019

This article provides new information about the current status of populations of commercial marine mammals and their use in the Russian Federation in 2014–2019. Large-scale commercial harvesting in the seas of Russian North-West and Far East stopped in the mid 1990s, and for now harvesting persists as element of traditional indigenous economy and nature management, or according trapping quotas for cultural, educational or scientific purposes. At the same time, the volume of harvesting has significantly decreased (from 250 000 to 5000–6000 in a year), and for whales – the size of the animals caught. It is demonstrated, that harvesting seals, according to renewed data on the abundance of far-eastern subpopulations of seals and in view of in-fact poor scales of local coastal harvesting (<25% of the allocated quotas realized), can be of a commercial scale without any harm for populations in terms of sustainable use approuch to canch up to 3500 ringed seals, 3000 harbor seals, 7000 ribbon seals and 1500 bearded seals in the Sea of Okhotsk, 2400 ringed seals, 4000 harbor seals, 2500 ribbon seals and 1600 bearded seals in the Russian part of the Bering Sea, 5000 ringed seals, 1500 harbor seals, 1300 ribbon seals, and 3600 bearded seals in the Russian part of the Chukchi Sea. With the total abundance of Caspian seals amounting to 280 000 animals the total allowable catch can be 8400 heads, including 4200 heads in the Russian Federation area of responsibility, or 1.5% of the total number. However, on the reason to the fact that in 2020 the species was listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, commercial fishing ceased from that time. Given the current status of the northern fur seal grouping on Tyuleniy Island, it is sufficient to adhere to a quota of 3621 bachelor fur seals (aged 2–5 years). On the Commander Islands, 370 bachelor seals 2–5 years old, 1535 one-year-old seals can be harvested. According to the assessment, the total abundance of Baikal seal in 2018 was 137 400 heads. Therefore, it is proposed to harvest 3000 seals (<2.5% of the stock). The abundance of Greenland seals estimated for 2014–2019 is 1 251 680–1 564 320 heads (including the recruitment 128 786). According to data of the ICES/NAFO WGHAR–2019 working group the reccommended catch of Greenland seals in 2020 should be 21 172 animals regardless of their age. Of this total, 14 159 animals should be harvested in the White Sea (the Russian Federation). To preserve the stable population of the Pacific walruses, taking into account their harvesting by North America’s natives as well as non-commercial losses and the size of the unrecorded harvesting, the harvesting quotas should not exceed 3200 animals. On the reason of poor utilization of the quotas, it was proposed to leave the TAC in the previous volumes – 1496 heads per year.

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