Data on forecasted catch, actual catch and their ratio for the main species of pacific salmon are presented; the salmon fishery in the Far Eastern fishery basin in 2023 is analyzed; the reasons for discrepancy between the actual catches of pacific salmon and forecast expectations are discussed.

Results of salmon fishery in Kamchatka Region in 2023 are overviewed. Data of fishery statistics on catches of pacific salmon are presented, by fishing districts. Feasibility of fishery forecasts is estimated. Seasonal dynamics of landing is shown for the main stocks of five salmon species. The spawning stocks on the eastern and western coasts of Kamchatka are assessed.

Results of the salmon fishery in Khabarovsk Region in 2023 and the reasons for deviations of actual catches from predicted ones are analyzed. The largest errors of the forecast were associated with low accuracy of estimates for the salmon parents and progeny abundance due to lack of information. In general, about 28,400 t of pacific salmon were caught in Khabarovsk Region, or 104.0 % of the preliminary forecast and 74.7 % of the forecast updated during the fishing season.

Pacific salmon fishery in the Sakhalin-Kuril region in 2023 is considered. The landing of 78.2^.10³ t was forecasted but the actual annual catch was 75.8^.10³ t or 97 % of the forecast. This ratio was the following for the mass species: pink salmon — 34643 t forecasted and 34402 t actually caught (99.3 %), chum salmon — 41650 t forecasted and 39265 t actually caught (94.0 %). Data on escapement of pink salmon producers to the spawning grounds are provided. The run of pink salmon producers was rather weak in the rivers of Aniva Bay and Patience/Terpeniya Bay, but close to mean values or even stronger in other areas of Sakhalin Island. However, low return of pink salmon producers to the coast of Iturup Island was noted; some suggestions about the reasons are discussed. Efficiency of the fishcounting barrier in the Krasnoarmeysky Strait (in Lake Tunaicha basin) is analyzed on the data obtained in 2022–2023. In order to prevent suffocation of chum salmon, installation of the barrier is recommended on August 20–25, with the purposes to count the migrating fish and to remove excessive producers after the mass run beginning (approximately from September 6–10). On the experience in resolving the conflict of interest between fish farms in 2023, the measures for optimal management of commercial fishery are proposed for the Strategy of pacific salmon fishery in Sakhalin Region in 2024 that include appropriate restrictions for fishing when the forecasted values of chum salmon are landed.

Results of salmon fishery in 2023 are summarized for the main fishing districts of Magadan region. Data on the forecasted and actual catch of the species of pacific salmon and char (gen. Salvelinus) are presented; accuracy of the forecasts is estimated. Expected and observed spawning runs of salmon are compared. The values of salmon escapement to the spawning grounds are analyzed.

Results of the salmon fishing season of 2023 in the Far East of Russia, Japan and northwestern North America are presented.

Data of the trawl surveys for counting of pink salmon in 2022 and 2023 and results of pink salmon fishery in the main areas of the Russian Far East in 2023 are presented and the studies for understanding the state of the main pink salmon stocks and regional complexes are overviewed. The total catch in the Far-Eastern fishing basin was 478.5.103 t in 2023, including 182.4^.10³ t in the Bering Sea (total run — 247.1^.10⁶ ind.) and 280.8^.10³ t in the Okhotsk Sea (total run — 292.4^.10⁶ ind.). These values slightly exceed the forecasts of pink salmon run and catch in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas (estimated catch rates 140–150^.10³ t and 240–255^.10³ t, runs 210^.10⁶ ind. and 260–270^.10⁶ ind., respectively). For the forecast for the Okhotsk Sea, materials on differentiation of mixed pink salmon assemblages were analyzed by specialists of the Kamchatka branch of VNIRO, using both traditional methods (as morphological express- method and genetic method based on mt-DNA analysis) and a new method based on SNP-locus variability.

Seasonal dynamics for expected and actual catches of pink salmon on the northeastern and southeastern coasts of Sakhalin and on Iturup Island are compared for 2018–2023. The actual values differed from the expected ones on average by a factor of two. Large errors in the forecast were caused by both objective reasons (unaccounted random natural cases) and subjective reasons (inaccuracy of the primary data used in calculations).

Pink salmon is currently the main species for the anadromous fish fishery in the north of the European part of Russia. Upward trends were observed in this species returns and catches in odd years of the 2013–2021 in the regions of North-West Russia (Murmansk Region, Republic of Karelia, Arkhangelsk Region, and Nenets Autonomous Region) that allowed to increase the annual catch limit to 1,619 t in 2023. However, despite this optimistic forecast, the factual total landing of pink salmon in this part of Russia in 2023 was 203.26 t by all fishing gears (12.55 % of the quo- ta). Oceanographic conditions (SST) along the migration routes of pink salmon were rather favorable both in the White Sea and North Atlantic, so reasons of weak returns are vague. Unpredictability of pink salmon returns is well known for the main habitat of the species — the North-West Pacific, so this phenomenon has occurred in the European waters, too, in 2023.

Results of pacific salmon research in the western Sakhalin Bay (Okhotsk Sea) in July-August 2023 are presented. Commercial catches by fixed seines at the mouths of Kol and Tyvlinka Rivers are analyzed with biological analysis of pink and chum salmon spawners. Data on annual catches of the pink and chum salmon in the western Sakhalin Bay (within Khabarovsk Territory) in 2007–2023 are provided.

Results of trawl surveys in the Okhotsk Sea and western Bering Sea conducted aboard RV TINRO and RV Professor Kaganovsky in the autumn of 2023 are analyzed. Data on spatial distribution, abundance and biomass of fish species, cephalopods and jellyfishes in the epipelagic layer are presented. Contemporary status of the epipelagic nekton communities is examined. Quantitative distribution and biological state of pink salmon is described in details.

Results of the trawl survey in the Pacific waters at Kuril Islands within and outside EEZ of Russia conducted by RV TINRO in June-July 2023 are analyzed. Data on spatial distribution, abundance and biomass of fish, cephalopod and jellyfish species in the epipelagic layer are presented. Contemporary status of the epipelagic nekton community in the surveyed area is analyzed. Quantitative distribution and biological state of pink salmon and other species of salmon in the summer season are considered in details.

Methods for forecasting the stocks of pacific salmon in Khabarovsk Region are considered. Errors of the forecasts based on theoretical parent-offspring models are associated with variability in weather conditions on the spawning grounds. The progeny dynamics is modeled much better when weather factors are assimilated into the single- factor models. The errors reduction would be expected for multifactor models, assuming that they will be based on reliable data on the number of parents and offspring, though this condition seems questionable in the face of a growing shortage of qualified observers and modelers.

Trawl surveys on juvenile pink salmon in fall season provide crucial information for forecasting their returns because of lower mortality of the juveniles in this season compared to their mortality during downstream migration in rivers or in the early marine period. Surveys by two research vessels give an opportunity to cover vast are- as in a short time and to exclude repeated counts of actively migrating fish on adjacent transects. The surveys in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas in the fall of 2023 were well planned and done, so the main aggregations of pink salmon in the offshore areas were assessed, ensuring good reliability of the data on this species abundance used for forecasting pink salmon adults returns and catch. Two regional groupings of juvenile pink salmon in the Okhotsk Sea were differentiated in mixed catches using the EM clustering method; the ratio of the «northern» and «southern» groupings was 40:60%. The total counted abundance of juvenile pink salmon was 0.33^.10⁹ ind. in the Bering Sea and 1.40^.10⁹ ind. in the Okhotsk Sea that allowed to expect preliminary the returns of approximately 100^.10⁶ ind. to the Bering Sea rivers and 208^.10⁶ ind. to the Okhotsk Sea rivers in 2024.

Dependence of the mature pink salmon returns to the mainland coast of Japan Sea (within Primorye Region) on their parents abundance and meteorological factors at the spawning grounds is analyzed. Variations of the progeny number were almost completely determined by factors acted in the freshwater period of their life, mainly by the number of spawners and total precipitation in the first winter after the spawning.

Number of juvenile pink salmon migrated from the spawning grounds in the rivers of East Sakhalin (Dagi, Malaya Khuzi, Kholodny (tributary of Poronay), Lazovaya, Pugachevka, Voznesenka, Ochepukha, Taranai, and Kura) and Iturup Island (Rybatskaya and Olya) was assessed. The downstream migration index was calculated for each of these rivers as the ratio between the number of spawners entered the river and the number of juveniles migrated down. The number of wild pink salmon juveniles from all rivers of the islands was evaluated separately for several local stocks spawned on East Sakhalin and the stock spawned on Iturup Island on the data of pink salmon spawners number for each local stock and the downstream migration index determined for the abovementioned control rivers. The total number of the fry migrated from the rivers of East Sakhalin in 2023 was assessed as 848.0∙10⁶ ind. and from the rivers of Iturup — as 265.4∙10⁶ ind. In addition to wild ones, the fry was released from salmon hatcheries located on East Sakhalin (145.1∙10⁶ ind.) and Iturup Island (152.5∙10⁶ ind.).

The report is based on observations of food composition in stomachs of common predatory fish species caught during recreational fisheries in the Fraser River basin, in particular Lake Morris (British Columbia, Canada), as cutthroat Oncorhynchus clarkii, mountain whitefish Prosopium williamsoni, and northern pikeminnow Ptychocheilus oregonensis. Up to 164, 126 and 28 fry of pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha were found in the stomachs of the listed fish species, respectively, during pink salmon downstream migration in April — early May. In this season, these species can consume a significant portion of their annual food ration, especially in energy terms. In the lake under con- sideration, these three predators are capable to eliminate pink salmon fry from the spawning of about 2,390 pink salmon in a small inflowing stream. Since the spawners of only the odd-years broodline of pink salmon reproduce in the rivers of the southern Pacific coast of Canada, the migration of their juveniles creates a significant difference in feeding conditions for predatory fish in adjacent years.

Downstream juveniles of pink salmon Oncorhynсhus gorbuscha were counted in the Malaya Khuzi River (Smirnykh district, Sakhalin Region) from May 17 to July 8, 2023. In this period, the water temperature had in- creased from 3.8 to 13.7 ^оC, floods were absent, except insignificant water rising after rains on May 27–29, June 12–14, and June 18–20. The majority of juvenile pink salmon (98.9 %) migrated within 23 days from May 23 to June 14, with the peak of migration on June 8 when the water temperature was 8.1 ^оC. The number of pink salmon juveniles migrated from the Malaya Khuzi River in 2023 was estimated as 8.77^.10⁶ ind.

Catch and distribution of pink salmon in the Primorye fishing subzone are compared for 2000–2023. Dynamics of the spawning run of pink salmon in 2023 is considered in detail. Commercial landing for weak odd-year broodline of this species in Primorye has increased to 1.5^.10³ t for the first time in the 21 century, whereas has de- creased in Khabarovsk Region. Such redistribution of pink salmon in 2023 occurred on the background of anomalous environmental conditions in the northern Japan Sea and Tatar Strait. Long-term patterns in variability of hydrometeorological parameters are analyzed and a forecast of their influence on anadromous migration of pink salmon in the Japan Sea is developed for 2024−2025.

The main biological parameters of chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta are presented for the spawners caught during the research expedition conducted to the lower reaches of Indigirka in August-September 2023. The data for prediction the volume of chum salmon catch in the Indigirka River are provided, including the registered volumes of annual landing in recent years. Features of the chum salmon fishery organization in the lower reaches of Indigirka are discussed.

The article provides information obtained during the monitoring of the spawning run of autumn chum salmon of the Amur River, conducted in 2023 near Tyr settlement. Data on the main biological indicators of autumn chum salmon are presented. Data on the dynamics of fishery indicators in the area over a number of years are also presented.

Adult chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta specimens returning to spawn were caught in the Prostor and Kurilsky Bays of Iturup Island and examined in the period from September 18 to October 31, 2023. The males dominated among sexually mature or close to sexually mature individuals; the portion of females had a tendency to increasing from the beginning to the end of the run. Most of the fish were aged 3+ (76.8% and 77.9% on average in the Prostor and Kurilsky Bays, respectively), the average portion of fish at the age 2+ was 10.6% and at the age 4+ and 5+ — 12.0 %, although the portion of three-year-old fish varied very much between the samples that was not observed in previous 10 years. The weight of adult chum salmon in corresponding age groups was similar in these two bays, on average 2.47 and 2.72 kg for females and males at age 3+, respectively, that was slightly below the values in previous 9 years.

The Matrosskaya, a small river on Paramushir Island (northern Kuril Islands), was surveyed in August 2022. The main hydrological and chemical parameters of the river water are presented; the morphological structure of the river bed and the granulometric composition of bottom sediments are characterized. Potential suitability of the river for the spawning of pacific salmon is discussed.