Russian fishery authorities are taking additional measures to tackle illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing during the country’s upcoming salmon season, according to a recent statement from Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries Head Ilya Shestakov.
At a session of the national salmon coordination group, Shestakov said special measures have been put in place to fight illegal fishing in the Russian Far East, home to the vast majority of the Russian salmon fishery.
As a result of the move, the government’s is predicting a higher recommended catch for this year, at 461,000 metric tons (MT), up 30 percent from 2017.
Illegal fishing has become a larger problem both for the government and industry, despite the government increasing fines for illegal fishing several times in recent years. Shestakov said in response, his agency recently signed agreements with the Frontier Guard Service, the Russian National Guard, and the police, which will conduct separate and raids and inspections on land and sea during the upcoming salmon season. Additional manpower will be brought to “secure effective control over salmon fishing and trading,” according to Shestakov, with 450 guards assigned to operate in the Kamchatka region, where most of the country’s salmon is harvested. Many inspectors will be provided accommodation at or near processing facilities, and approximately 70 day-and-night checkpoints will be established on roads, rivers, and at ports to prevent the illegal trafficking of salmon from Kamchatka, and an additional 33 mobile-response teams have been formed to monitor for illegal activity.
Similar steps are being taken throughout all other regions of the Far East, though at a lesser scale, Shestakov said. Additionally, the Khabarovsky krai region signed an agreement on cooperation with the Russian Space Agency to scan for illegal activity along the region’s rivers and shores. Those efforts have already yielded results, as the Space Agency detected illegal activities of poachers who had been building infrastructure for future fishing in forbidden areas.
The amped-up surveillance comes as Russia is experiencing its highest-ever hauls of salmon. Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries is predicting a catch of 461,000 MT of salmon this year, up from a prediction of 320,000 MT in 2017, with an even-higher 351,000 MT actually caught. Last year, the forecast was nearly the same, 490,000 MT, but the season ended with 675,800 MT caught, an increase of 238,7000 MT over 2016.
Of this year’s predicted total, the Federal Agency for Fisheries predicts 293,000 MT, in humpback salmon, 116,500 MT of Siberian salmon, 40,700 MT of sockeye, 9,700 MT of coho, and 481.5 MT of Chinook.
As of mid-July, 61,400 MT of salmon has been harvested, 33 percent more than in the corresponding period of 2017.
Photo courtesy of Maksimilian/Shutterstock
