BarentsNews.com

In late August, a meeting of the joint Russian – Norwegian Advisory Group on Barents Sea Fishing took place in Oslo.
One of the participants, Murmanrybvod’s chief Boris Prishchepa, reported the details of the meeting.

He explained that it was a follow-up of the Russian-Norwegian preliminary talks held in early July in Moscow over the delimitation of the neighbouring area (so called grey zone) in the Barents sea.

The panel aimed at defining the basic principles for drafting a bilateral agreement on this point. Joint Russia’s and Norway’s actions, in case the agreement is signed, were outlined. The Norwegians plan to have the delimitation draft ready by November that is by the time of Russian President’s official visit to Norway, intending to use the 1975-76 accords with the former USSR as a basis for the new document.

But to Russia, Mr Prishchepa believes, the future agreement will be of no profit. Even though it is supposed to respect the mutual economic interests. “Today we have no restrictions on fishing in the neutral waters as well in the Svalbard fishery conservation zone. But we will definitely lose something if we adopt this line of demarcation.

In 2001, for example, out of the 1 100 000-tonne Russia’s total catch in the Northern basin, only 10 percent was caught within the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone. It is utterly important that the new regulations not applied to the whole Barents sea area. We must try to keep the traditional relations with Norway in the field of fisheries.”