Meeting held today between Vladimir Putin and the head of the Federal Fisheries Agency Ilya Shestakov (Photo: courtesy TASS)

Russian plans for fishing and processing 300,000 tons of krill

RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Tuesday, October 20, 2020, 02:00 (GMT + 9)

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture - Head of the Federal Fisheries Agency, Ilya Shestakov, informed the president today about the situation of the fishing industry.

After answering various questions regarding the situation in the sector, due to the restrictions caused by COVID-19, Shestakov literally told President Putin that the Federal Fisheries Agency "carried out scientific research in Antarctica following his instructions. It is important that Based on the results of these studies, we have companies that are now interested in building three modern ships in national shipyards to work in Antarctica. That is, in the next four to five years, we will be able to collect around 300 thousand [tons] of krill there for further processing. "

Source: CCAMLR | Click on the table to enlarge it

It is noteworthy that on the other hand Russia has also expressed its disgust at the complicated process of approval of research projects, including "disparities in national procedures regulating permitted activities." In early February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed in a documentary about Russia's activity in Antarctica that no country could claim the continent.

"It is one of the few marine resources that is freely accessible because it is beyond the [exclusive] fishing zones," Konstantin Bandurin, director of the Kaliningrad-based Atlantic headquarters of the Federal Institute, said recently. of Fisheries and Oceanography Research of Russia VNIRO (“AtlantNIRO”), during a press conference on the subject.

Photo: courtesy AtlantNIRO

On September 16, at the Atlantic branch of the FGBNU "VNIRO" ("AtlantNIRO"), a meeting of a small working group was held under the chairmanship of the deputy director of the Federal Fisheries Agency, Petr Stepanovich Savchuk, to consider Issues related to one of the strategic directions of the development of the Russian Federation fishing complex - the prospects for catching, developing and processing Antarctic krill.

The reports were heard by Svetlana Mikhailovna Kasatkina - Head of the Department of Commercial Electronic Engineering of Marine Research and Industrial Fisheries - "Prospects for the resumption of the national krill fishery" and Anatoly Vladimirovich Andryukhin - Head of the Laboratory for Standardization and Standardization - "The main results of the technological work in the 69th cruise of the Atlantis STM in ACA and perspectives of processing of Antarctic krill 

Photo: courtesy AtlantNIRO

CM. Kasatkina noted that the status of the raw material base for krill in the Atlantic part of Antarctica, as the most promising area for the resumption of national fishing, allows to organize a sustainable and efficient fishery here with an increase in the capacities of production Give Russia the opportunity to develop priority areas for the development of krill resources based on modern fishing technologies and technological krill processing on ships and on land. The development of a national krill fishery in the CCAMLR Convention Area is limited neither by the status of the krill resource nor by the legal capacity of the Russian fishery. The results of the resource studies carried out on the 69th PL Atlantis cruise ship allow the development of scientifically based recommendations for the resumption of an effective national krill fishery through the integrated use of krill resources in the Convention Area and beyond. of the Convention Area and effective scientific support for fisheries.

Photo: courtesy AtlantNIRO

AtlantNIRO can now develop recommendations and provide scientific support for the processing of these types of resources, depending on the needs of the industry and market conditions.

The country's fishing effort reached its peak in 1982, when the USSR caught 93 percent, or 491,700 metric tons (MT) of the 528,700 MT of krill caught that year. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, its total catch was reduced to 90,000 to 120,000 MT. and Russia has not actively participated in the krill fishery since 2009.

It is not yet clear what the relationship will be between the activity that the Russian companies intend to carry out and the Association of Responsible Krill harvesting companies (ARK), since at the moment it is not part of it.

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