Fishing cruise of the Russian trawler Zakhar Sorokin to the Antarctic (Subarea 48.3) from 16 February to 10 March 1999

From 16 Fenruary to 10 March, 1999, a Russian large capacity trawler "Zakhar Sorokin" carried out fishery for icefish Gunnari in CCAMLR subarea 48.3. During the cruise, 88 hauls were done and 264,921 t of icefish were caught. 86% of catch were taken from 28 February to 3 March on the nothwestern slope of the South Georgia Island, where icefish fed actively on Antarctic krill and, therefore, formed dense commercial concentrations. In this period, catches constituted 3,4 t per trawling hour and 57 t per day of fishing. Icefish 27-33 cm long were the basis of catches. Total catch of other fish species constituted 9,171 t.
Due to opinion of the captain of a Russian vessel and Russian scientists, having large experience in fisheries and research in this area, the results of the cruise have proved a complexity of fishery for this species but are not an evidence of bad status of Champsocephalus gunnari stock in the subarea 48.3