Anchovies

With just a few days remaining until the fishing ban is lifted, fishermen eagerly anticipate casting their nets into seas, hoping for a bountiful season with abundant catches of bonito and bluefish.

With adverse weather dealing a severe blow to the fishing sector, fishermen are struggling to continue catching fish in the Black Sea, resulting in limited fish stock available for selling and a consequent rise in prices that have also almost doubled.

Despite the abundance of anchovies, which have been caught in limited amounts in the Black Sea last year, experts are concerned about next year because of "excessive fishing."

With the start of the fishing season in the Eastern Black Sea on Sept. 1, fishermen continue to cast their nets into the sea.

Fishermen in the Black Sea region are hopeful that they will catch plenty of anchovy in this hunting season that will start on Sept. 1.

However, bonito will probably be in short supply, said Atıf Malkoç, the head of the Samsun Region Aquaculture Cooperatives Union.

Following the weather returning to seasonal normal in the last few days, fishermen have started to stare at the sea again, hoping that there will be plenty of anchovy besides bonito with the cold weather.

Fishermen who could not find what they hoped for in the sea for a while due to the hot weather, expect a considerable increase in fish they hunt.

Experts are foreseeing plenty of bonito in the new fishing season that has kicked off in Türkiye after a five-month hiatus, with the number of anchovies declining as the number of fisheries has decreased around 30 percent in the last decade.

Anchovy herds have returned to the Black Sea as the temperature rises, prompting the price of Turkey's popular fish to plunge.

The price of anchovy rose sharply earlier this season as anchovy herds migrated to the shores of Russia and Georgia since the southern coast of the almost landlocked sea was warmer than in previous years.

Istanbul's residents have consumed anchovies, known more widely in Turkish as "hamsi," bonito and haddock the most in 2020, according to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality data compiled by state-run Anadolu Agency.

Some 97 different fish species were brought to the main fish market in the Gürpınar neighborhood of the Beylikdüzü district, said municipality officials.

Despite the 10-day ban on anchovy fishing in the Bosphorus announced by the Agriculture Ministry, the strait was again invaded by boats looking for other species, daily Hürriyet reported on Jan. 9.

A 10-day ban has been imposed on commercial fishing of anchovy with all kinds of fishing gear as they have not reached the desired size, according to a written statement issued by the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry.

"The number of undersized anchovies has risen in the Istanbul Strait and the Black Sea," according to the statement issued on Jan. 7.