Skates in the Barents Sea: stock status and catch by fishing fleet

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.

Annual trawl surveys conducted by Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO) in the Barents Sea during 1998-2003 have been used for estimation of abundance and biomass of the five species of skates (Thorny skate, Amblyraja radiata; Arctic skate, Amblyraja hyperborea; round skate, Rajella fyllae; blue skate, Dipturus batis; spinytail skate, Bathyraja spinicauda). The paper presents estimation of total skate catch during international trawl and long-line fishery for demersal fish in the Barents Sea and adjacent waters. The estimation was based on a method used at PINRO to determine catch of demersal fish taken as bycatch. Initial data to estimate total catch of skates in the study area were official international landings of demersal fish and database on species composition of catches gathered by Russian research observers onboard fishing vessels. The estimated catch of skates showed to be much higher than the official landings, which indicated that a large proportion of the skate catch was not used for production but discarded back to the sea.