On possibility of using results of bottom trawl surveys to assess year-class strength for pacific herring Clupea pallasii in the southwestern Okhotsk Sea and on the Pacific shelf of southern Kuril Islands

Distribution patterns and size composition for underyearlings of Sakhalin-Hokkaido herring are analyzed and their abundance is determined on results of the bottom trawl surveys in the Aniva Bay, Patience Bay, and on the shelf of southern Kuril Islands in autumn of 2024 and 2025. In 2024, the highest density of underyearlings was observed in the northern and northwestern Aniva Bay at the depths up to 40 m, but with their abundance increasing in 2025 the feeding area expanded toward south-west and south-east and some juveniles were caught off the southwestern coast of Sakhalin. In the Patience Bay, the underyearlings concentrated mainly in its northern part, off Lake Nevskoye, at the depth of 20–30 m. The main accumulations on the shelf of southern Kuril Islands were observed in the South Kuril Strait between the islands of Shikotan and Kunashir at the depth ranged from 30 to 160 m, with the highest concentration at 60–90 m where about 70 % of the population were accounted; some herring juveniles were caught beyond the strait on the Pacific and Okhotsk Sea shelves of Kunashir Island. The number of herring underyearlings was assessed in the Aniva Bay as 125.7 ^. 10⁶ ind. in 2024 and 2420 ^. 10⁶ ind. in 2025, in the Patience Bay as 440 ^. 10⁶ ind. in 2025, and at the southern Kuril Islands as 5260 ^. 10⁶ ind. in 2025. The total number of herring underyearlings in these three areas reached 8.12 ^. 10⁹ ind. in 2025, over 67 % of them were counted on the shelf of southern Kuril Islands. Taking into account natural mortality, the year-class of this year contributes to the commercial stock of herring about 177 ^. 10³ t in 2029, when these fish will reach the commercial size (9.6 ^. 10³ t in the Patience Bay, 52.8 ^. 10³ t in the Aniva Bay, and 114.8 ^. 10³ t at the southern Kuril Islands). The trawl survey of underyearlings is a promising tool for assessing recruitment of Sakhalin-Hokkaido herring in the waters of Sakhalin Island and southern Kuril Islands.

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