The speakers of the discussion also included Ilya Shestakov, Head of Rosrybolovstvo, Irina Zhachkina, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Rosselkhoznadzor, Ivan Mikhnov, President of the Antey Group of Companies, Valery Tsukanov, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Director for the North-West of the Norebo Group of Companies, Andrey Grechkin, General Director of Dalreftrans LLC. Vladimir Solodov, Governor of the Kamchatka Territory, and Mohamed El Hafed Ejiven, Director General of the Mauritanian Institute of Oceanographic Research and Fisheries, joined the discussion. The moderator of the discussion was Anton Borisov, TV presenter of the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
The panelists discussed the current situation in oceanic fisheries and the difficulties faced by domestic fishermen in the extraction of UBR outside the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The unfolding controversy touched upon the most pressing topics, including: difficulties in the construction of a marine fishing fleet, unfriendly actions of Western countries, disruption of logistics chains and a ban on the sale of fish products in a number of markets.
As noted by the head of Rosrybolovstvo Ilya Shestakovat the moment Russian fishermen have a good foundation for increasing the production of fish products not only in the EEZ of the Russian Federation, but also abroad. “There are already a number of companies that are actively operating in international waters, in particular, in the waters of the African continent,” -said the head of Rosrybolovstvo. First of all, this concerns the waters of West Africa. Following the results of the Russia-Africa summit, Ilya Shestakov noted, there are prospects for the discovery of production in the waters of East Africa. In order for Russian fishermen to have a complete picture of the situation in these waters, the possibility of conducting two large expeditions to the waters of East and West Africa is being discussed.
Ilya Shestakov stressed that despite all the difficulties of the current situation, Russian fishermen will always have the opportunity to fish in the world's oceans.
In his speech, the Director of VNIRO noted that the Russian fishing industry has a rich history of WBR extraction in the waters of the World Ocean. The heyday occurred in the mid-70s of the last century, when the catch of fish and seafood exceeded 10 million tons, which allowed the USSR to take a leading position in this area. Despite a number of objective difficulties, - said the director of VNIRO, - Russian fishermen today have very good prospects for a multiple increase in catch volumes. We are talking about an additional million tons of fish and seafood that can be harvested by domestic fishermen. "The main thing is not to be afraid and go to sea. There are both opportunities and resources for the extraction of additional volumes of Aquaticbiological resources (VBR)," Kirill Kolonchin noted.
The participants of the discussion discussed the possibilities of additional construction of new oceanic-class fishing vessels, the creation of processing and logistics infrastructure, measures to support fishermen from financial institutions and the state, as well as the development of human resources in the industry and the training of young personnel.
The hot topic of recent weeks has not been ignored - the discharge into the ocean of industrial water used to cool the reactors of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant damaged during the tsunami. Kirill Kolonchin informed the participants of the discussion, listeners and journalists that on behalf of the head of Rosrybolovstvo Ilya Shestakov, VNIRO promptly dispatched a scientific vessel with scientists on board to carry out comprehensive monitoring.
"The first tests showed that we have nothing to fear. Scientists of fisheries science give a good forecast. Russian fishermen will be fine with their fish, which means that Russians will have good fish products on their tables," Kirill Kolonchin said.
VNIRO Press Service
