The vessel "Atlantis" in the Great African Expedition entered the port of Conakry (Republic of Guinea)

 

The vessel was met by a large delegation headed by the Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Economy of the Republic of Guinea, Ms. Fatima Camara. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Guinea and the Republic of Sierra Leone (concurrently) Alexey Popov, Director General of the National Center for Scientific Research of Boussoura Ousmane Tagbé Camara took part in the ceremonial event on the occasion of the vessel's arrival.

 

After greeting the captain of the STM Atlantis, Mikhail Yakubin, at the pier of the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Economy, the entire representative delegation, about 40 people, boarded the vessel. The guests were shown the scientific laboratories and the navigation bridge of the vessel.

 

After the official part, the scientific group of the Atlantic branch of the Russian State Research Center "All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography" (VNIRO) went to the National Scientific Research Center of Boussoury (CNSHB), where a meeting of experts from the Atlantic branch of VNIRO and CNSHB was held to agree on a joint research program in the area of ​​the Republic of Guinea during the Great African Expedition.

 

The Russian delegation was headed by the head of the STM Atlantis expedition, Grigory Maslyankin. The Guinean delegation was led by Ousmane Tagbe Camara, General Director of CNSHB. About 20 specialists took part from the Guinean delegation.

 

The parties discussed the objectives of scientific research, areas and stages of work, as a result of which a program of joint research in the area of ​​the Republic of Guinea was agreed upon and approved.

 

For reference:

 

The first intergovernmental Agreement between our countries on cooperation in the field of marine fisheries was signed in February 1966. The agreement proposed coordinating their efforts to study the raw material base of the tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean and to promote the development of Guinean fisheries science. It envisaged the creation of a Joint Commission, the meeting of which would be held every two years.

 

In the subsequent ten-year period, no joint research related to the assessment of the state of fish stocks in the coastal waters of Guinea was carried out. In addition to commercial trawlers, scientific exploration vessels worked in this area, which were engaged in the search for fish concentrations for Soviet commercial vessels operating here. At the same time, oceanographic work was carried out and biological analyses of fish were made.

 

In December 1976, a session of the Soviet-Guinean Joint Commission on Cooperation in Marine Fisheries was held, during which the Guineans asked to receive materials from the Atlantic branch of VNIRO on the results of oceanographic work carried out by Soviet scientific search vessels in the waters adjacent to their country.

 

Subsequently, the research materials of the Soviet scientific search vessels were transferred to the Guineans in a summarized form through the Soviet embassy.

 

The last survey to assess fish stocks in the zone of the Republic of Guinea took place about 35 years ago.

 

At the end of November 2024, expeditionary research in the zone of the Republic of Guinea will resume, which will be carried out jointly by Russian and Guinean specialists within the framework of the current intergovernmental agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Guinea on cooperation in the field of fisheries and aquaculture, signed in September 2018.

 

Press service of VNIRO