On Tuesday, a meeting of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission began in Tokyo. It was attended by delegates from seven countries and one fishing entity, including China and Russia.
The main issue on the agenda is whether restrictions should be imposed on the catch of saury.
The report prepared by the Commission States that saury stocks in the North Pacific have declined sharply over the past 20 years, and the average population from 2016 to 2018 was about 20 percent below what is considered sufficient to sustain the species.
At the beginning of the meeting Deputy Director General of the Japanese fisheries Agency Masaki Hasina expressed the hope that the participants will understand the importance of maintaining stocks of saury in the Pacific ocean and soon will be introduced the rules of the catch to maintain the resource.
Attention was focused on countries that opposed restrictions on fishing, as a unanimous decision was required for a decision to be taken.
However, after the discussion of the report and speeches of representatives of the delegations of the countries participating in the Commission, including Russia, it was decided to impose restrictions on the catch of saury in open waters.
"The decision to limit saury fishing meets the interests of the Russian Federation and is a step forward on the way to the conservation and sustainable fisheries of aquatic biological resources of the Pacific ocean," said the Chairman of the Russian delegation - Deputy Director of VNIRO – head of TINRO Alexey Baytalyuk.
In addition, during the meeting, the election of the governing bodies of the Commission for a 4-year term was held. Now it will be chaired by Russia. Vladimir Belyaev, head of the Department of international cooperation of the all-Russian research Institute of fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), was elected Chairman instead of Kenji Kagawa (Japan).
Also during the meeting it was decided that the 7th meeting of the Commission in 2021 will be held in Russia in St. Petersburg.
Reference:
The North Pacific fisheries Commission (NPFC) is an intergovernmental organization established by the Convention on the conservation and management of high seas fish resources in the North Pacific.
The objective of the Convention is to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of fishery resources in the Convention area, while protecting the marine ecosystems of the North Pacific where these resources are located.
The current members of the Council are Canada, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Taiwan, the United States of America and Vanuatu.
The press service of the VNIRO
