Long-term dynamics and current state of yellowfin sole <i>Limanda aspera</i> stocks in the waters of Sakhalin Island

Abstract

Commercial stocks of two yellowfin sole populations on the western and eastern shelves of Sakhalin Island are assessed by VPA method using the data on their size-age structure and fishery statistics for 1950-2013. Results of the assessment are compared with the data of bottom trawl surveys conducted in 2000-2013. The yellowfin sole at Sakhalin Island had two periods of high abundance: in the 1950-1960s and in the 1985-1995, but its stocks decreased in the 1970-1980 and after the middle 1990s. This dynamics is similar to the dynamics of other large populations of yellowfin sole in the North Pacific - in the southeastern and western Bering Sea and on the shelf of West Kamchatka. All these changes are caused by natural reasons; fishery has secondary importance and affects on the populations in times of low stock only.