BarentsNews.com

Governor of the Murmansk region Yury Yevdokimov disapproved of the new proposals that came from the State Fisheries Committee regarding the distribution of fishing quotas among coastal regions of the Russian Federation, as reported by the press secretary Nikolay Sigin.

Two draft documents were offered for consideration to the regional authorities: “Regulations on the Distribution of Fishing Quotas for Aquatic Biological Resources of Inland Seas, the Territorial Sea, the Continental Shelf and the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Russian Federation” and “Regulations on the Distribution of Fishing Quotas for Aquatic Biological Resources Allocated to the Russian Federation in the Fishery Zones of Foreign States and in the Areas of International Fisheries Conventions.”

The regional authorities declined both drafts in the official reply sent to Moscow. As Yevdokimov explained, the proposed regulations do not take into account the specific character of fishery in the Russian Northern basin, and therefore should not be applied to the country’s north-west regions. The new system of quotas distribution offered by the state officials, he stressed, implies an ultimate dominance of central decisions over the use of all marine bio-resources, with no regard to the regional opinions.

With Murmansk region’s positive experience in the allocation of fish quotas, Yevdokimov insists, a special working group including representatives of Murmansk and other north-west coastal regions must be formed in order to work out an alternative system of quotas distribution.